Who was Zydrunas Ilgauskas’ late wife, Jennifer Ilgauskas?
THE WIFE of former Cleveland Cavaliers player Zydrunas Ilgauskas has died at only 50 years old.
An obituary at the Zeis-McGreevey Funeral Home announced the player's wife, Jennifer Ilgauskas, passed away on September 11, 2022.
Who was Jennifer Ilgauskas?
Jennifer Ilgauskas worked in the medical field while her husband starred in the NBA for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
As a medical worker, Jennifer earned her Master's degree in public health and eventually became the owner of several companies in Ohio including Rebound Physical Therapy, North Olmsted Urgent Care, Lakewood Urgent Care, and Darbo, a medical billing company.
In January 2017, Jennifer opened Lakewood Urgent Care and Rebound Physical Therapy in Lakewood, Ohio.
The opening took place five years after she partnered with Dr Nicolas Young to open North Olmsted Urgent Care.
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Together they believed it was time to expand their physical therapy practices resulting from the continued success at North Olmsted.
"We knew we wanted to expand. We did quite a bit of demographic research. Lakewood was prime for occupational services and urgent care services," Jennifer told Cleveland News at the time.
Jennifer said it was her husband's numerous injuries while playing for the NBA that inspired her to open physical therapy and urgent care facilities.
"I saw how important it was to success for returning from injuries," Jennifer told the outlet.
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She added: "A big percentage rests on the surgeon, but the real work starts with the patient and the therapy afterward. The surgery can only take you so far."
Do Jennifer and Zydrunas Ilgauskas have children?
Jennifer and Zydrunas have two sons, Deividas and Povilas, who were adopted from Kaunas, Lithuania in 2008.
The boys were orphaned brothers and were four and five years old when they were adopted from the orphanage.
"I'm not sleeping as much, but I'm enjoying the heck out of it," Zydrunas told ESPN in 2009.
"It's been a blast. It's been challenging at times but all in all, it's been a great experience. We've got a big family now.
"I'm at a happy place in my life right now. The kids just completed our family."
Jennifer and Zydrunas adopted their sons two years after she gave birth to stillborn twins, a boy and girl, when she was only five months pregnant.
Zydrunas missed four NBA games while they dealt with the loss of their children, and upon returning, he said during a pre-game press conference: "Neither one of them survived, so obviously, I just had to take some time for myself to take care of things."
He said it was the toughest thing he ever experienced, adding: "It puts life in perspective."
The couple gained a newfound joy in parenting after adopting Deividas and Povilas and spent time teaching the boys to speak English and becoming a tight-knit family.
"It was quite a journey,'' Jennifer told Cleveland News in a 2014 interview.
"There's not many things that happen in your life, moments that define you. But, truly, losing the babies was the defining moment in who we were, where we were in our marriage, where we were going to go forward, how we were going to go forward.
She said adopting the boys was not "an easy start" and she wasn't prepared for how she would take on motherhood.
"It's not for the weak at heart," she told the outlet, adding: "I had this vision of what being a mom was going to be, and let me tell you, that's not what happened.
"You have a lot of lead-up to create some pretty fantastic scenarios. Ultimately, it is a pretty fantastic scenario that I am grateful for on a daily basis."
When did Jennifer Ilgauskas die?
The Zeis-McGreevey Funeral Home and Berry-McGreevey-Martens Funeral Home of Lakewood announced that Jennifer passed away on September 11, 2022.
The obituary was written by family and friends and said: "[Jennifer] always had ideas for growth and the never-ending desire to achieve more. She truly enjoyed working and being a leader who led by example.
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"She cared deeply about everyone she employed, and her door was always open to those who needed to talk. She was generous with her time, finances, and counsel."
She is survived by Zydrunas, who has yet to publicly comment on her death, and their two sons.