Chicago: Orchard and Aldine

In late spring of 1985, I moved from Briar to Orchard in Lincoln Park. The ancient landlady lived downstairs. She followed her husband's instructions: "Rent the two rooms upstairs to college students very cheaply". John had been there for a couple of years and when the front unit was vacant he got me in.

Here, we were giving our first party together. We made at least 200 hors d'oeuvres.

On Labor Day of 1985 we moved down to Corpus Christi, Texas. It did not work out as we wished and we moved back to Chicago February of 1986.

Before we moved down, our good friend Dick gave us a going-away party. He baked the cake. He also bought bales of hay and decorated his tiny basement apartment as a barn!

Halloween in Westmont.


















Late summer of 1986. John was getting ready for dialysis. He was on dialysis for 6 months and on the night of April 20th, 1987, we got that important phone call from University of Chicago Hospital.

"Buy Fuji stock" was the first thing he said to me when wakening up in the recovery room.

He went home a week after the surgery and recovered very well. Later an article was written by Tribune Sunday Magazine about his surgeon and John's picture was in that article. I still have a copy.













John in the backyard of 4008 Washington, Westmont. I vaguely remember that warm day in fall when he took off his shirt. He was so strong and beautiful.

So many times I napped in that uncomfortable swing (too short) and bumped my head on the low-hanging edge of the roof when getting out.

And this is the house in 2011. We drove by on our way to the Arboretum. Neighbor John bought it in 2003 when dad moved to Colorado. He gutted the second floor and put in a bathroom. How mom would love to have a bathroom on the second floor! And a front porch!

Barbara, a good friend of Dick, visiting us while staying with Dick.

This is the apartment on Aldine. John found it while I was still in Corpus Christi. He was afraid I wouldn't like it. But I loved it. It was perfect for us at that time (1986- 1989).

They are all gone now: John, Barbara and Max. The poster on the wall is gone, too. I looked everywhere for it after scanning this photo.

The rickety apartments we had on Orchard is now a fancy two-unit condo. The old land lady passed away soon after we moved to Texax. Her daughter and son-in-law, who lived in the coach house in the back, didn't waste any time to sell the house. We visited it in 1986 while it was still under renovation. The second floor where we lived now connects to the attic. The first floor and basement (Bill lived down there for years) became one big unit.

Our friend Richard, who at the time lived in the garden apartment next door, moved to Lake In The Hills in 1986. That house on Orchard was torn down and a new townhouse was built from scratch.

On the other side, Bob's house is still there. Bob passed away around 1996.

In October (or November?) of 1988 I obtained citizenship. John, of course, was at the ceremony. And later he gave a party for me. All our good friends came.

It was from here on Aldine we started the tradition of putting Christmas card on the door.

John bought a shelf from Bargain Unlimited and added shutter panels to dress it up. We called it "the thing" as it was neither a shelf nor a cabinet. When we moved to Hoyne we bought a cabinet for the foyer. We called it "the new thing". The thing disappeared (along with that print on the wall) through the years and moving, but the new thing is in our dining room here on Savona.

John had a folding container in his trunk to carry groceries. He called it "the colorful thing" because it has red, yellow, green and blue panels. Later I bought one for my car and it is white so we called it "the white colorful thing".

Now I have the colorful thing in my trunk. And I roll his yoga mat and my pilates mat together. Kind of like the shirts in the movie "Brokeback Mountain".