Chapter 8 - Norma & Bobby Benson EJ&E Railroad

GENROZT: a gracious act that creates a joyful ache every time it is remembered


OPENING
When I first met Norma she was merely four numbers, the first three totaling $79 and the fourth $1.3 million. As tickled as my new colleagues were by Norma Benson's stunning estate gift to our social services agency, no one knew her. No one. Her database information was sparse: an address, husband Bobby, who pre-deceased her, and three small donations, the most recent 25 years earlier.

I know there are bushels of thoughtful individuals among us, going about their lives with empathy and skill, generosity and heart, largely unaware of the impact their gracious acts have, almost invisible in our world.

So, I set out to make visible this unassuming couple who lived on Glenwood Avenue in Joliet, Illinois. Seven years later, I introduce to you Norma and Bobby Benson, at rest side-by-side with, yes, railway tracks running nearby. And not just any railway tracks alongside Elmhurst Cemetery. It's the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern railway, the EJ&E, the railway they both worked for and loved.


CLOSING

Our city of Des Plaines has three railway tracks criss-crossing roads with nary an overpass. (A pin you can buy at our Historical Society, led for decades by the singular Joy Matthiessen, reads 'Blame it on the trains',) So I was hopeful that the tracks two blocks from our home would be Norma and Bobby's EJ&E. Nope, they're Ralph's MCRR.

Still, I believe we have terrific connections to Norma and Bobby at the end of our block. The street on our side of the tracks is named Grace which will be a great title for a column on generosity if the J-Milepost is ever resurrected.