On Tuesday, Nov. 19, friends and family members of Homewood Stories’ creator Dr. Karen O’Donnell gathered in the main room of the Flossmoor Community Center to pay tribute to the woman who had enticed many of them to plow through a polar vortex in January 2014 to attend the show’s debut.
The commemorative gathering had the vibe of a lively Irish wake, which traditionally is meant to help friends and family come to terms with their loss and to share memories of the deceased. True to Karen’s legacy, everyone at the event honored her through storytelling, community, food, and conversation. It made me happy to think that Karen would have been the life of the party that night.
of Homewood Stories at the Flossmoor Community House. This was the cover photo
for the Chronicle’s January edition, which featured Homewood Stories on the
occasion of its 10th anniversary. (Chronicle file photo by Karen Torme Olson)
I had known Karen for less than a year before her death Sep. 2, but after meeting her for the first time to interview her for a Chronicle story on Homewood Stories’ 10th anniversary last October, it took less than half an hour for me to know that we shared enough history, milestones, and relationship experiences to make us friends for life.
In the weeks following that first meeting, I attended Karen’s storytelling workshop and watched her patiently transform people who were terrified of speaking to groups into confident storytellers ready to take the stage. She gave all of us public speaking pointers, a little container of her famous fudge, and she talked me into promising to bare my soul to a room full of strangers at one of her events. It was scary, but that was the point—once you tell your story, the people in the room aren’t strangers anymore.
At the tribute, Karen’s 102-year-old stepmom, Marj Wright, was seated at a table close to the stage as she had been every single third Tuesday of the month since Homewood Stories debuted almost 11 years ago. Marj was creator of the famous fudge Karen the dentist and Karen the community builder gave to patients and members of the audience every chance she had. “I loved her very much,” Marj said. Karen always claimed that Marj’s love was the secret recipe ingredient that made her fudge special.
Dusty Patrick, 81, who has been a regular Homewood Stories speaker since COVID ended, said she is her family’s storyteller but the opportunities for family time have diminished. Thanks to a brochure Karen left in the mailroom of Patrick’s apartment building, she found a place where she could share vignettes of her life with avid listeners. Patrick said it changed the trajectory of her retirement years. “We have to go to this,” Patrick recalled telling a friend when she read the brochure. She did and it changed her life. “This [storytelling] is the best thing God has ever led me to,” she said.
If God really was recruiting storytellers through Karen, He had an awesome partner in this dentist-raconteur, who never missed an opportunity to coax ordinary people into sharing extraordinary moments in their lives with her and each other. The result was and is a community of individuals determined to keep the stories going, strengthen their bonds with one another, and to keep Karen’s legacy alive.
“She was in it because of the community in this room. She was in it because of YOU,” said Steve Coombs of Ogden Dunes, Indiana, who contributed his photography skills and welcomed Homewood Stories guests to the monthly event for years. “Karen always told me, ‘Man, this is my beautiful audience.’ How many times did you hear her say, ‘Thank you, beautiful audience.’?
“She said that so many times that I knew it was her mantra. Then she told me something I’ll never forget. She said, ‘This is the most important work of my life.’ What she was doing here for all of US was the most important work of her life. Wow.”
“This was her gift to the community,” said Margaret Burk, who runs her own storytelling group in Oak Park and who met Karen at a storytelling event on the North Side of Chicago. “Her joy is present here tonight. I can feel that she celebrates all this,” Burk said.
“What has made this journey so beautiful for me is that when I met Karen that very first time, I had no idea how meaningful it would be, but she warned me,” said Giggy Wagner, who has lived in Homewood for 12 years.
“She [Karen] said she warned everybody that if you sign up to tell a story, it’s going to change your life,” Wagner said. “I connected and reconnected with friends because of telling stories. This is my community, and this is why I am so honored to be able to be a part of keeping Karen’s legacy going.”
Suzy Lebowitz Dritz said she and Karen both graduated from Homewood Flossmoor High School in 1973 but never met there. “Shortly after our 40th high school reunion, I got an email saying that a classmate of ours was starting a story show,” Dritz said.
Dritz didn’t go to the first show, but she ended up telling a story in many shows after that. “We became very good friends.” Dritz went on to say that she and her husband Randy were very fortunate in that Karen invited them into her inner circle to be part of her journey near the end of her life.
“My favorite memory of Karen is her smile spreading the love in the room,” Dritz said. “Karen, your love is not forgotten, and all of us here tonight feel that. Thank you.”
A team of seven storytellers/friends of Karen O’Donnell are working together to keep Homewood Stories alive. The show will return at 7:30 p.m. but on the second Tuesday of each month starting Jan. 14, at the FCC Community House at 847 Hutchison Road in Flossmoor. For more information search for ”Homewood Stories” on Facebook.