For at least fifteen years she was a crossing guard for the Cook County Sherrifs Department. Every morning she was at her spot on Greenwood and Linneman in Glenview, Il. I believe she was there for about and hour and a half and helped thousands of children over the years cross the street on thier way to Henking Elementary School. In the winter she would keep her car running and run back and forth from crossing kids then back to her car for a few minutes of warming up. I don’t think she ever missed a day. Then she would do it all over again in the afternoon to get the kids home.
Other than being a crossing guard she really didn’t have what most businesses would call skills for the workplace. Except for talking on the phone. She seemed to excel in that. So with the assistance of a friend, I got her an interview for a position at a new hotel, The Embassy Suites in Glenview. She was really nervous but I knew she could be the best phone operator for them. She got the job and she did fantastic despite her fear of computers and dealing with people that were pretty tall compared to her school; kids. She met people from all over the world and enjoyed speaking with them and learning new things. I believe she worked there for at least twenty years. She ended up being the most senior employee and survived numerous ownership changes. I was so proud of her.
She was my mother, and she lost her husband my father when I was in high school. He had been sick with MS for a good number of years. Yet despite all that, she raised me and my three sisters by herself. Being a babyboomer and growing up in the sixtys it was so different than now. I could be gone all day riding my bike and be miles and miles away and she wouldn’t be worried about me. Some of those times I was out climbing a seventy five foot high tree and swinging on branches. I was swimming in the pond at what is now “The Grove” where famed horticulturist & educator, Dr. John Kennicott resided. I knew when dinner time was and that was really our only rule, we had to be home by then. She seemed to trust us that we knew right from wrong and that we knew our way home.
She was Ninety Four last night when she passed and most of the family was with her. I pray now that she is with dad, her mother and father. I think she was a smooth operator.