Latest / Illinois Valley - Shaw Local / Paperwork: Tucked into the pages of this book was a ticket for some time travel

Transcript

Paperwork: Tucked into the pages of this book was a ticket for some time travel · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Paperwork tucked into the pages of this book was a
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: ticket for some time travel, written by Lonnie Kine. This
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: article is being read by an automated voice brought to
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: you by Everlett The Perfect Time Capsule a book. Those
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: were my closing words last week, after I detailed some
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: of my discoveries in old used books. I also mentioned
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: my dilemma with a nineteen forty four edition of The
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Razor's Edge by W. Somercusset Maugum. I found a thin
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: slip of paper still stuck between the pages. I thought
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: it belonged to a museum somewhere in Chicago, because it
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: is a used ticket for the Chicago Surface Lines that
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: ran the street railway system from nineteen thirteen to nineteen
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: forty seven, a neat slice of history. But now Fott
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: has decided there will be no museum donation. That ticket
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: must stay in the book. As an extension of the
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: young lady who bought the book, Jeene Wickencamp, inked her
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: name inside inside the front cover in the date July
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: nineteen forty four. When I was sharing these details in
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: a previous column, the mystery began to simmer again. The
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: ticket I understood, but who was this woman? I thought,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: why not search? So I typed the full name into
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: an online query and up popped Phyllis gen Wickencamp Sescer
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: with obit details provided via findegrave dot com. She passed
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: away at age ninety nine and November twenty twenty four,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and she was a member of the Evangelical United Methodist
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Church in Ottawa, the town I live in. It made
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: sense that she would be from LaSalle County. I bought
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: the book from an antique store in Sandwich, a short
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: drive north of Ottawa. Suddenly I felt a connection to
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: this woman who rode street cars in Chicago in nineteen
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: forty four when she was nineteen years old. But was
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: she the woman I was looking for? Below her obit
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: was a flower image with a short message, I love
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: you and miss you every day. The note was posted
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: this year in February by Kristen's er line. I sent
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: her a message asking if Phyllis Sesker was in Chicago
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: in nineteen forty four. Yes, this is the correct Phyllis.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I cannot wait to hear the story, was her quick response.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: I told her about the book and ticket and asked
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: for more details. Gosh, this is so wonderful that you
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: found this, she said. Phyllis was my aunt. I was
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: extremely close to her. I believe the family moved to
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Chicago in or around nineteen thirty eight, when she was
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: about to enter the eighth grade. At the time of
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: her death, she would have been one hundred. In July
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, she was still living by herself and
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: still driving, which included out of town to church every Sunday.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: She was in pretty good health and very clear minded.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: She was just the most wonderful person in the world,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: so caring and would do anything for anyone. She never
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: wanted attention drawn to herself ever. Phyllis lived on forty
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: fifth Place in the Canaryville neighborhood. In nineteen forty four,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: she was a stenographer for Cook County Hospital in the
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: soul Services Department, probably using that ticket for travel to
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: and from work. She also did clerical work for Kristin's
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: grandfather in his trucking business at the corner of forty
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: third and Halstead Streets in Chicago. Her husband was a
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: driver for the company. When they met and later married
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty five. They lived in Peru from nineteen
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: sixty five till about nineteen seventy seven, when they moved
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: to Florida. They moved back to live near Utica. Her
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: husband passed in two thousand. In two thousand and six,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Phyllis bought her home in Peru and worked for a
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: friend in downtown LaSalle until COVID closed the shop. When
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: she passed, my sister and I cleaned out her home,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: and I kept many treasures from her house, Kristin said.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: My mother and I would come up every summer for
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: her birthday and spend a few days with her. I
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: just marvel that this resolute woman lived through nearly ten
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: decades and remained unswerving in how she lived her wonderful
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: life and her constant thought for others and never herself.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I truly loved her with all of my heart and
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: miss her so much. It is absolutely kismet that you
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: found that book, Kristen said, noting her aunt was an
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: avid reader. I am so grateful that you were able
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: to find and contact me, and that these articles will
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: keep her legacy going. Yes, let's call it kismet. And
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: by now you know where this book belongs. With ticket
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: inside in Oklahoma City with Kristin, perhaps she'll tuck this
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: column inside the book, which has become a perfect time capsule.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Lonnie Kane, retired managing editor of The Times in Ottawa,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: also was a reporter for the Herald News and Juliet
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies. His paperwork email is Lonnie Kane
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: at gmail dot com or mail the News Tribune four
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: to twenty six Second Street, LaSalle, Illinois, sixty one three
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: zero one