Helen Hegblom

 Beloved wife, mother, nana, teacher. 

Helen June Cranska Hegblom passed away peacefully in her sleep on March 31st, 2026, at her home in Wellesley, MA, surrounded by her family.

Helen, the youngest daughter of Lucius and Mary Cranska, grew up in Moosup, Connecticut along with her sister, Hope and near to her aunts and grandparents and many of her cousins whom she knew from a young age. Helen attended Plainfield High School, and then graduated from Wheaton College with a degree in Government and the prize for tops her major.

Helen earned a master's degree in special education from Tufts University and after working for a period with kids at Children’s Hospital, took a position with Holbrook schools as a special education teacher. At her apartment building in Boston, she met her future husband, Richard Hegblom, a research physicist, whom she married in 1968.

In a few years, the coupled moved to a suburban neighborhood street in Wellesley with the pending birth of their first child. Helen left teaching to raise her two sons, Eric and Robert, in the 1970s and 80s. She later returned to teaching in 1989, starting again as a special education teacher helping students in the learning center in Newton Public schools, then later obtained certification from Boston College for teaching mathematics and took on full-time teaching of high school classes in algebra, geometry and social studies at Newton South High School until 2008.

Helen was a long-time member of the Wellesley Hills Congregational Church, where she was a frequent usher and engaged in many church volunteer activities. Helen kept up her social life not only with her sister, family, and fellow teachers, but through her enjoyment of the Boston Symphony, knitting, bridge, and senior exercise classes.

Helen was an innate nurturer shaped by her work with children in special education, and evidenced by her many years of dedication to raising her children, looking after her husband, her sister and a series of three golden retrievers whom she deeply adored. She took easily to engaging with her grandchildren, the neighbor’s children and her students.

Despite her own terminal health condition, she often remained concerned and sympathetic for others in her life and delighted by their stories.

Helen is survived by her husband, Richard, her two sons, Eric and Robert, and her four granddaughters: Katherine, Natalie, Lyla and Molly.

A memorial service at Wellesley Hills Congregational Church is planned for July 11th at noon.

The family will happily accept flowers, or alternatively a donation to the Wellesley Hills Congregational Church or to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation in Helen’s name.