A Life Worth Remembering: Juliet Eiber, School Nurse

Juliet Juarez Eiber traded one job she loved for another in 2005 when she left and became head nurse for Evergreen Park School District 124.

“Juliet loved her interaction with the children and the staff,” said her husband, David Eiber. “She enjoyed being around people.”

“Juliet truly was a kind and caring person,” said District 124 Supt. Diane Cody. “She truly loved the kids and they loved her back. The district will miss her.”

Mrs. Eiber, 61, a resident of Evergreen Park for more than 20 years, died on Aug. 17 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., after a short battle with acute myeloid leukemia.

“I was a very fortunate man to have found her,” said her husband as he recalled meeting the Filipino native in January 1987.

“We met through a dating service,” he said. “They said it was computerized but I think they just pulled our names out of a hat.”

In his eulogy, her husband said meeting her was like, “God slapped me upside the head and said, ‘Hey, dummy, I led you to something very special, get with the program.” He soon proposed and they were married 10 months after being introduced.

“What amazed me about Juliet — 'Bing' to her Filipino friends — was that she maintained her friendships throughout her life,” her husband said. “Whether Grant Hospital picnics, Christ Hospital- PACU get-togethers, or the school district’s retirement and Christmas parties, she loved to be around people.

“The Filipino community is a very tight-knit group,” he said. “They love to have an excuse for a party. Whether reunions or someone’s birthday or anniversary. And she would take me along. I ate more rice in the first year of marriage than I had all my other 38 years.”

Mrs. Eiber graduated from nursing school in the Philippines in 1971 and came to the United States in 1973 and soon settled in Chicago.

She first worked at Grant Hospital on the North Side and moved to Christ in 1992 after the birth of their second child, Johanna. The growing family also moved from their apartment in Chicago’s Hyde Park community to Evergreen Park.

She worked as a recovery room nurse in the PACU at Christ until 2005, when she took a position as head nurse at District 124.

“She loved her work,” her husband said. “There were often times we would be walking around Evergreen Park when some child would run up to her to say ‘hi’ or a parent would know her.

“I was known as Juliet’s husband. I loved that title. I often told her she should run for mayor because she was known by so many people.”

Mrs. Eiber is survived by her husband, a son, Jonathan, two daughters, Johanna and Julieanna, her father, Jerome Juarez Sr., eight brothers and sisters, and many nieces and nephews.