Vinodbala “Vinodini” Sudhakar Wagle

Vinodbala “Vinodini” Sudhakar (Mehta) Wagle was a caring wife, mother, grandmother, sister, Masi, and friend who passed away on Friday, November 22, 2024 at the age of 85.

Vinodini was born as the second daughter of six girls to Liladhar and Labhakunver Mehta on October 3, 1939 in Wankaner, India. She grew up in Mumbai and went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts and Masters degrees in Sociology from the University of Bombay. Vinodini was a very strong-willed woman and always pushed boundaries, sometimes against the ideas of her traditional parents. At age 5, Vinodini happened to live next door to her eventual husband, Sudhakar. Despite the prevalence of arranged marriage in India at the time, Vinod and Sudhakar did not follow that practice as they fell madly in love. In 1959, Sudhakar immigrated to the United States to pursue his Ph.D. Five years later, after working to purchase a one-way plane ticket to Wisconsin, Vinodini followed him so the two could be married. On October 24, 1964, Vinodini and Sudhakar were married at the YMCA in Madison, WI. They spent 60 wonderful years together, traveling the world and building an amazing life for themselves in the Milwaukee area.

Although Vinodini strongly embraced her Gujarati identity she, assimilated very well in American culture and perfected her English by watching television. Vinodini spent a lot of time with other members of the Indian Community in Milwaukee with whom she developed many lifelong and extremely close friendships. She devoted her life to her husband and raising her daughter, Swati, and her twin sons, Sunil and Nikhil. She worked as a social worker for many years at Bel Air Convalescent Center and she also volunteered for many years at Soujournor, a woman’s shelter. She was also very spiritual and followed Shrimad Rajchandra’s philosophy of Jainism which provided her much peace and solace. She was feisty, funny, extremely loving, an excellent cook, and always focused on the positives in any situation. Vinodini was compassionate, supportive, generous and always focused on helping others in need, including family and strangers. In her final years, she loved playing Mahjong with her friends and focusing on her spirituality. And at the chagrin of her husband, she never lost her love of gambling.

Visitation will be held at Krause Funeral Home, 21600 West Capitol Drive, Brookfield, Wisconsin, on Sunday, December 1, 2024, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Shrimad Rajchandra (https://srlcusa.org/donate/) or the Jain Temple of Wisconsin (https://www.jainwi.org/donate/).