GENROZT: a gracious act that creates a joyful ache every time it is remembered
OPENING
Chicago's grid system of alphabetically-ordered streets is one of this area's best assets. For example, you can drive east from our house into Edison Park along, say, Touhy knowing that Oleander is next to Olcott which is next to Osceola.
You should know that my secret desire, every time we take that drive to Sheila's cousins' home, is to stop and tape a small photo over the letter 'C' so that it reads OSEOLA. I know, I know, there are rules against that.
Still, that's how I'd like to honor Miss Oseola McCarty one day. With a photo of her smiling, lined face transforming the street named for a great Seminole Chief into one honoring an elderly black laundry lady.
CLOSING
Ted Turner was interviewed around the time of his [$1 billion] gift to the UN, telling Larry King: "You have to learn to give. You're not born to give. You're born selfish."
Perhaps one of his mentors was Miss Ola who said this in a story published by [University of Southern Mississippi] as her donation was announced: "I can't do everything ... but I can do something to help somebody. And what I can do I will do. I wish I could do more."
In truth, Miss Ola is The Gift.
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