EASTER SUNDAY 2024

I was gloriously saved on Easter Sunday 1980. I was 32 years old with 4 young children.      Doug and I had been married for 11 years. 

What a wonder God is to have plucked us out of the miry clay and set us upon the solid rock!

These years have had their ups and downs, but God has remained faithful and steady.

As our world has become more unsettled we look to the soon return of the Lord. 

We look with faith and hope of His promised return. We love you Lord. We glorify your name!

He is not here-for He has risen!!

 

My peace I give unto you

Today I'm worried about Doug. He hasn't felt well in two days.

He has had consistent chest pain and he is so tired. He is getting a bit more forgetful although he doesn't seem to know it. 

We planted a small container garden this spring. Tomatoes, cauliflower, onions, peas, beans and celery!!!  

Nat came to help us last weekend. It was great having him here. Some days I miss the children so much. I feel as though I am not needed any more. They are all successful and raising their families. None of them live close by. They don't need my help or advice these days. Is this what it is like to be old? I will be 74 this year, but I don't feel old. 

God gives His peace - that is my rock and my comfort in this uncertain time we are living in. 

Kerr-McGee and Lindsay Light co.

My husband lived adjacent to this factory in West Chicago from the age of 4 until he was 17. He now has dementia. He is probably in the middle of this disease. We have knowledge about how it manifests because we took care of my parents for nearly 10 years as they traveled the road of dementia.

I can't help but think this radioactive environment is the cause of his disease. As a boy he and his friends would climb the fence around the factory and investigate. He even said that they would at times walk in the retention pond. Probably filled with radioactive runoff.

Lindsay Light Site History and Background

History

Charles R. Lindsay Jr. founded the company bearing his name in 1902. Until the mid-1930s, the Lindsay Light Co. manufactured incandescent gaslight mantles at several addresses in Chicago's downtown Streeterville neighborhood.

A gaslight mantle is a small fabric bag infused with thorium or other metal nitrate that fits over the gas source. The heat from the gas flame burns off the mantle fabric leaving a fine metal mesh that glows brightly. The Lindsay Light Co. used the radioactive chemical thorium nitrate to manufacture their gaslight mantles.

Lindsay obtained thorium containing ore, typically monazite, to refine and extract the thorium. The refining process produced a sand-like waste known as thorium mill tailings, which were used for fill in the low-lying Streeterville area of Chicago and apparently former boat slip areas on the south side of the Chicago River directly south of Streeterville.

Lindsay Light's first location was at 22 W. Hubbard St. The company later expanded its operations to 316 E. Illinois St. and 161 E. Grand Ave. Ore containing radioactive thorium was processed at the Illinois Street site and the mantles were manufactured at the Grand Avenue location. In 1932, the company began moving its operations to West Chicago, Ill. (see Kerr-McGee Superfund site.) The company closed the last of its Chicago facilities in 1936.

Thorium contamination

EPA first discovered contamination at Lindsay Light's Illinois Street location in 1993. Since then, further investigations found soil contamination at more than a dozen locations in the Streeterville neighborhood and directly across the Chicago River at the New Eastside neighborhood. Thorium-contaminated soil emits gamma radiation. However, if soil, concrete, or asphalt is covering the contaminated soil, that cover will shield the radiation.  It will also prevent people from touching, inhaling, or eating the contamination. In the Streeterville and New Eastside neighborhoods, nearly all of the thorium contamination was buried or shielded, so there was a minimal health and safety risk to people walking on sidewalks or inside buildings. When this contamination is disturbed, the risks increase.

To protect workers who might come into contact with radiation and thorium in subsurface soil, the EPA and city of Chicago developed a system that required anyone planning to work in subsurface soil in the Streeterville and New Eastside neighborhoods to monitor the soil for thorium contamination.

To date, cleanups have been done at more than a dozen properties. About 55,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil have been removed and shipped to out-of-state facilities licensed to accept radioactive waste. There are still several properties known to have contamination that need to be cleaned up. 

Working in the rights-of-way within the areas that possibly might have thorium-contaminated soil

Because of the long-lived nature of thorium contamination (some radioactive contamination is very short lived), the need to know that these areas are safe for workers will continue far into the future. Therefore, EPA has agreed to host a web-based repository of radiation testing reports and other technical documents for the benefit of those working within the rights-of-way. The reports in the web-based repository allow utility companies and city departments to easily check to see if an area has already been tested and determined to be clear of contamination, or if the area has never been investigated and still needs to be tested. The repository should save companies time and money by avoiding the duplication of radiation testing.

THE WIGWAM

 We sold the family cottage last year. It was a very hard decision, but it was time.

It is sad to think that I will never spend wonderful summer days there again- baking 

raspberry pie and having barbecues in the back yard. 

Part of the reason we moved up here over 20 years ago was because of our

love of the cottage.

Many of us spent our honeymoons here, including mom and dad in 1944.

Each couple carved their initials and wedding date into a rock on the fireplace.

It was always called, the Wigwam. I believe it has had that name since 1900. 

Our dining room. I don't think the new owners kept this table or the chairs. We heard that they had all the furniture hauled away, but it will always remain in my memory like this: our happy place!

The screened in front porch was the absolute best part of the cottage.

My mom had collected all the wicker, but I think the glider must 

have been there forever!

When I was a teenager I remember our dog, Lady, would get tired and then she

would look at us as if to say, "good night" and head up the stairs

to her bed in the chimney room. 

We loved you wonderful cottage. You will always be in our memories and hearts!