Lois and her Irish-ness Digital Flip Book December 10, 2018

Henn for safety. Toms parents, ois and ill, generously let him stay in their home for the
duration of the summer break between high school and college. fter his father died, his
mother and sister came to visit ois and said how appreciative they were of her taking care of
Terry. ois sincerely appreciated this gesture. Tom carried the lessons he learned from this
eperience with him as he grew up and began his own life. He was shown that a little bit of
care and love can go a long way. Terry later gave tribute to ois on her passing in 201 when
he wrote to his friend Tom
Tom and family, am sorry for your loss. our mother had a tremendous impact on my life
by her actions in the summer of . hen left home without a plan, she housed me and
helped me get through a very tough transition. Her spirit of generosity is something will
always treasure. Terry. v
ois and ill continually worked hard to give their children many eperiences in life whether
it was while on camping trips, sports or school and engendering a sense of community and
neighborliness. ll of this happened naturally as if it were woven into the fabric of life itself.
11 outh Harvard, rlington Heights was in a neighborhood with lots of families with
young children. very year for many years block parties on emorial ay weekend, th of
uly or abor ay eekends were organied for the locals. uke ynder who lived across
the street from the Henn household suggested to all the parents ets not travel on these
weekends, lets have lock arties instead
The parents loved the idea. Tom remembers
They were a blast. ou can ask any child or adult. e all loved it and looked forward to it.
e all chipped in and helped. t was not only a sense of community it was a sense of
belonging. uring the day the adults would rotate as to which house would host daily
activities for adults and children. The children would play various games such as throwing
lawn darts and horse shoes, scaring themselves with the uia boardgame, riding mini bikes,
staging water balloon fights, lighting firecrackers and sparklers in the evening, and more.
sually, during the early evening, the children would move picnic benches to one house and
set them up in the garage. hy the garage ell in hicago it could rain at a moments
notice The adults would barbecue something for them. ater in the evening the adults
would play cards, sometimes all night long. n one occasion the police showed up not
because of noise but because someone reported the adults were gambling. ack then, that
was a big deal and you could get arrested. The policeman arrived and walked up to the
garage. He said the station got a call there is gambling happening here and have to
investigate. The adults, including our parents, stated, es indeed we were gambling.
Then they waited a bit and one of them said with pennies and nickels which had everyone
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