Today we visited Resurrection Mausoleum in Resurrection Cemetery, Justice, Illinois to pay our respects to Mike’s parents – Michael & Catherine Krywanio – who are interred here.

The mausoleum is breathtakingly beautiful. It covers three floors with space for over 5,000 entombments and with a permanent staff on-hand, it is very well maintained. What gives it such a calm and peaceful atmosphere, is that it hosts the world’s largest stained glass window which encloses the mausoleum. The window is floor-to-ceiling on each level around the entire building enabling light to flood in creating a very serene environment inside. There are settees and chairs at appropriate places in each section of the mausoleum where visitors can sit and contemplate the lives of their loved ones.

Resurrection Cemetery is also home to a famous ghost – Resurrection Mary! The story goes that Mary had spent the evening dancing with her boyfriend. At some point, they got into an argument and Mary stormed out. Even though it was a cold winter’s night, she thought she would rather face a cold walk home than spend another minute with her boyfriend.

She left the ballroom and started walking up Archer Avenue. She had not gone very far when she was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver, who fled the scene leaving Mary to die. Her parents found her and were grief-stricken at the sight of her dead body. They buried her in Resurrection Cemetery, wearing a beautiful white dancing dress and shoes.

Since the 1930s, several men driving northeast along Archer Avenue between the Willowbrook Ballroom and Resurrection Cemetery have reported picking up a young female hitchhiker. The young woman is dressed somewhat formally in a white party dress. When the driver nears Resurrection Cemetery, the young woman asks to be let out and promptly disappears into the cemetery!

Resurrection Cemetery which was dedicated in 1956.

One floor of the magnificent stained glass window.