Newspaper Article: Dad, daughter seek hope after tragedy. Sharing My Story Posted by: Edward Janus | Disability Advocate and Activist.

Newspaper Article Extracted From
"Northlake Herald-Journal"
Dad, daughter seek hope after tragedy
BY JENNIFER GIUSTINO
STAFF WRITER
July 28, 1999

It is a telephone call that is easily a person’s worst nightmare.
On Saturday morning, July 3, Edward Janus was sitting with his 8-year-old daughter in his home waiting for his wife to return when his phone rang. Charlene, Edward’s wife of 10 years, and their daughter Cheralyn, had plans to visit Charlene’s mother in Georgetown, Ill.
But the trip was never to be.
After a telephone call from an employee at Firestone, where Charlene was having her car serviced for the anticipated family visit, Edward became nervous when he learned his wife had been involved in an accident.
A second telephone call from an official at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park confirmed the incident was indeed true.
“He said, ‘Mr. Janus, your wife has been involved in an accident. We need to see you and your daughter right away,” Edward remembered. “I asked him what happened and all he said was, ‘We need to see you. All I can say is it is not good.’ I guess they didn’t want to tell me over the phone.”
Charlene, due to turn 53 Aug. 15, had been pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
Struck while walking across the 2600 block of Mannheim Road just after 8 a.m., Charlene was only steps away from safety.
A car driven by Agapito Arriaga, 74, of Northlake, was heading northbound in the center lane, according to police reports, and hit Charlene with the right passenger side of his vehicle as it traveled at 45 miles per hour.
But for Edward, getting to the hospital to see his wife was not going to be an easy feat.
Born severely hearing impaired and with cerebral palsy, Edward is also permanently confined to a wheelchair.
While a neighbor volunteered to drive him, a squad from the Cook County Sheriff’s Department eventually picked up Edward and his young Cheralyn and immediately brought them to the emergency room.
“The doctor told me, ‘Your wife didn’t have a chance. She didn’t suffer. She was dead on arrival,’ ” he said. “ I just started bawling.”

Donates organs

Meanwhile, their only child went to her mother’s side.
“Cheralyn is a very brave little girl,” he said, smiling as fathers do when speaking proudly of their daughters. “She was standing there looking at her mother and rubbing her mother’s arm. She took her mother’s purse ... brave little kid.”
But the love and courage expressed so sweetly did not end.
Asked by the doctor whether the family wished to donate vital organs, Edward said he had no problem with the idea, but that he wished to consult with his daughter.
Cheralyn agreed without any reservations.
Her mother’s bone tissue, a heart valve and a piece of her eye were harvested for donation so that potentially another person or several other people may have a better quality of life.
So far, Edward and Cheralyn’s decision has helped at least two people. One man from Elmwood Park and one man from Chicago have been given the gift of sight following a successful corneal transplantation, according to the Illinois Eye Bank.
But, as if that was not enough, Edward did something many may find unthinkable.
The next morning, he made and answered calls from family and friends. One call he made embodied not only his spirit of generosity, but his spirit of compassion.


Calls driver

Edward called the gentleman who accidentally killed his wife.
While Arriaga was “not home,” he was able to speak with his wife.
“I said, ‘I am the husband of the woman your husband had the accident with. I don’t hold anything against your husband. I'm sure you and your husband are both devastated. He has to live the rest of his life knowing that he killed somebody,’ ” Edward said, recalling the Sunday morning conversation. “ If he would like to talk to me, maybe we could both feel better about it — maybe we could both heal together.”
With complete sincerity, Edward said he called Arriaga to offer forgiveness because it was something he “had to do” in his heart.
“If I were to ever see that man face to face, I would say, ‘Sorry.’ It was an accident. I'm sure that he was not driving that car trying to kill someone. I believe he must feel very bad,” Edward said.
While it has been nearly a month since Edward has buried his wife, the family’s spirit remains intact.
“I always thought that God would not give me something I couldn’t handle,” he said. “Right now things seem tough, but I have gone through disabilities. I have had a lot of obstacles in my life and I have always pulled through.”
Hopefully, his optimism will succeed his family’s tragic loss.
“Everyone used the same word to describe her: ‘Sweet,’ they all said,” Edward remembered and then offered more sentiments. “She was very sharp. She was a tutor at Triton College for their literacy program (Access to Literacy). Charlene was a very simple and a very down to earth woman. She didn’t wear fancy clothes. She had learned to do without those things. I will miss her very much.”
Charlene will not only be missed as a wife, a mother, and a friend. Her financial contribution was integral to the family’s financial stability.
As Edward put it, Charlene was also the “bread-winner” in the family and without her income, Edward and Cheralyn have only the monthly Social Security (disability) checks Edward receives from the years he was able to work at Bally Manufacturing, where he met his beloved wife.
One member close to the family said even with Charlene’s wages from Albert H. Wohler’s & Co. in Des Plaines, where she worked for 10 years as a personal computer operator in the applications department, the family pretty much lived month to month.
And now, with only Edward’s federal disability check coming in to pay the mortgage, utilities, and the growing needs of young Cheralyn, the family’s faith will soon be further tested.
“I will not be able to provide for my daughter the way her mother did, but I am going to try,” said Edward. “I have my driver’s license, but I cannot get into and out of the car like I was able to before when I was on crutches. I can drive with hand controls, but once I am out of the chair, who is going to put the chair in the trunk? Who is going to get it out of the trunk for me?
“I hope to get a van some day with a lift and then I could just go up, and then let myself in and drive,” he said. “I have some brochures, but they’re expensive.”
While driving his daughter to school one day might be a dream to fulfill down the road, it is not as immediate as some of his goals. He would like to get some type of live-in assistance to stay nights with the family, when solving emergencies tends to be trickier. Other tasks most people take for granted, such as grocery shopping, buying school clothes and maintaining the home, are also some of his concerns.
As well, Edward wants to send Cheralyn to college one day. She has dreams too and wants to be a veterinarian, he said.
In the meantime, Edward and Cheralyn will take each day as it comes, undoubtedly embracing life and one another.
While technically, the Janus family’s postal code falls into both Leyden and Proviso townships, Edward said he considers himself a resident of Northlake.
The driver of the vehicle is charged with failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. He does not face felony charges.

Thank you for reading.
Sincerely,
Edward Janus | Disability Advocate and Activist
10707 Wrightwood Ave. Northlake, IL. 60164
E-mails: EdwardJanus@msn.com
EdwardJanus@EdwardJanus.net
Web Site: http://www.edwardjanus.net