Cancer Fighter Passes Away at 43

PLAINFIELD, IL — Plainfield resident Natalie Martello, who recently received help from local organizations Christmas Without Cancer and March4Meg, passed away Dec. 30. She was 43.

Martello had been battling leukemia, although she had said before her passing that she was in remission.

On Dec. 21, Martello was presented with a check for a Cobra medical insurance payment and gift cards. The generosity of the organizations and everyone who helped her out was not lost on Martello.

“It’s amazing how many people have reached out to us and have helped us,” Martello had said in a previous article. “We wouldn’t have been able to get through this without them.”

She had also received help from employees within the City of Naperville, where she had worked for the past eight years.

“A lot of people donated their time to me for me to be off after my husband passed away and for me to be off when I was diagnosed. They got nothing in return. They just gave their time to me,” Martello said.

Martello’s husband passed away in December 2014. Her late husband’s father passed away just this December.

Martello was born April 15, 1972 in Chicago to the late Michael Hartmann and the late Susan (William) Vynanek.

She leaves behind four children: Eileen, 17, Teddy, 12, William, 10 and Charlie, 8, brothers Michael (Adine) Hartmann and Richard Hartmann, sisters Jennifer (Martin) Martello and Kathleen Maugeri, as well as numerous nieces and nephews

Visitation for Martello will be held from 4 to 9 p.m. Jan. 6 at Overman-Jones Funeral Home, located at 15219 S. Joliet Road in Plainfield. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:30 a.m. Jan. 7 at St. Mary Immaculate Catholic Church, located at 15629 S. Route 59.