Milena A. McConchie

Milena McConchie, wife of retired Illinois State Senator Dan McConchie, passed away on February 21, 2025 at the age of 51. Milena grew up in the seaside town of Varna in the country of Bulgaria just north of Greece. Even though her homeland was controlled by Communists, Milena was a lover of freedom and wanted to see the world. At a young age, she determined that she would marry a ship’s captain, because a captain was allowed to take his wife on his voyages and that way, she was going to actually see the world. 

But Communism collapsed in Bulgaria in 1990 when Milena was just 16 years old and the freedom she yearned for was now hers. She knew she would go to college and decided on one particular school, the American University in Bulgaria. So committed was she to attend this school that she refused to even apply to other schools vowing to her mother that if she was not accepted, she would simply apply again the next year.

 But she was accepted and excelled. During her collegiate tenure, she went to a summer program on free market economics in Prague offered by The Fund for American Studies. It was there that she met Dan McConchie. In downtown Prague, surrounded by amazing historical architecture, attending a university that was more than 600 years old, and drinking a bunch ofbeer because it only cost a quarter, it was easy to fall in love. And they did. 

Six months later they were engaged, but shortly thereafter, she was diagnosed with cancer linked to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster that had happened a decade before. They both committed to the “for better or worse” part of their relationship and got married right in the middle of her cancer treatment - hairless and all. 

It was the start of a great life. They both became accomplished professionals and had two wonderful daughters together. And she let her husband chase his dreams including what he would say was the honor of a lifetime, becoming an Illinois State Senator. She would always send him to work with containers of homemade food for his lunches because, as she told him, “That’s how I participate.”

During those good years, there were bad times too - times that can be best described by their locations - a doctor’s office, a hospital room, or on a bed undergoing yet another medical test. She suffered immensely over the years but rarely let on just how much she was suffering. 

Unfortunately, the health troubles that plagued her since Chernobyl were not to be outrun. She passed away from heart failure due to the cancer, the radiation, and the chemotherapy treatments that we now know cause the heart muscle to harden. Fortunately, she is now free of those troubles and is finally in a place where there is no sickness and there is no death with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

According the Apostle Paul:

“I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’”

Milena is survived by her husband, Dan McConchie, and her daughters, Sophia and Kristina.

In lieu of flowers, Senator McConchie requests that people donate to a scholarship fund in Milena’s name that will help send young students from Bulgaria, Ukraine, and the rest of Eastern Europe to The Fund for American Studies program on free market economics in Prague, where they met nearly 30 years ago. https://tfas.org/the-senator-dan-and-milena-mcconchie-scholarship-fund/