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Obituary – Chizuko (Maria) Kraft

December 14, 2017 | Community News

Chizuko (Maria) Kraft

Chizuko (Maria) Kraft was known for her boundless energy, warm hospitality, strong work ethic, and her dedication to family and friends. She was a wonderful cook, a hostess extraordinaire, a compassionate soul, and a devoted surgical nurse having served in the operating room for 30 years.

Her immediate family members said good-bye to her on December 10, 2017 in Boulder, Colorado as she passed into eternal light at the age of 87. She celebrated a marriage of 59 years to Klaus Kraft filled with international travel, numerous friends, and most notably a fruition of the American Dream for two daring young immigrants who crossed oceans and met in Chicago at a dance for English Language Learners.

Chizuko leaves a legacy which includes two daughters, Nancy Kraft (Russ Hopkins) and Silvia Kraft; two granddaughters, Erica Sciortino (Victor Androvich) and Danielle Sciortino; two great grandchildren, Hunter Androvich and Ian Hopkins. She will also be missed by her sister, and many nieces and nephews and extended family in Japan, Europe and Chicago.

Chizuko was remarkably active throughout her 87 years, in recent years visiting the Longmont YMCA daily and maintaining her vegetable and flower gardens. She will be remembered for her sweet smile, her vivacious engagement in life, her resourcefulness, her generosity, her strength, her love of dogs, her creativity and artistic eye, and most of all, for the twinkle in her eye.

Chizuko was born in Tokyo, Japan on February 16, 1930, one of seven children. Her family had moved to Kyushu during World War II, and she was less than 40 miles from Nagasaki when the atomic bomb was dropped. Chizuko returned to Tokyo and graduated from the prestigious Tokyo University Nursing School. She came to the United States in 1954 with a student exchange visa on board a freight ship and made her way to Chicago. She will be greatly missed by friends and family from around the world, but most of all by her husband, Klaus, who resides in the home they made together in Berthoud, CO.

Please visit howemortuary.com to share personal condolences. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Food Bank for Larimer County.

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