2013

With two sets of railroad tracks running through Glen Ellyn and three gated crossings, there was always a tension between the kinetic and the domestic.

In the fall of 1950, a car was hit by a train and its occupants were killed. One was the driver, Mr. Swatek, and two were our schoolmates, Marilla and Jeanie. (In Along the Waccamaw I mistakenly said the mother was driving.) These children were the cousins of Betty Kutilek, our classmates. I understand that the Glen Ellyn News printed an Extra on this civic tragedy. Hawthorne School asked a minister to come in, and the Rev. J. Stanley Stevens of the First Congregational Church (the father of our classmate Karen) gave an encouraging talk to an auditorium full of pupils.

Some of you might want to add a few words to this memorial. If so, just send them to randallawells@yahoo.com.

Bless you, sister Sisters.