GloriaZampa

Published: Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015 1:06 p.m. CST

By AIMEE BARROWS - editorial@mysuburbanlife.com

LOMBARD – It was the worst night of Gloria Casper’s life

On May 23, 1945, the 9-year old and her two sisters were hauled away

by a paddy wagon from Ridge Farm in Lake Forest and taken to the

Audy Home, a juvenile detention center in Chicago.

“Nobody told us anything, and we had no idea where we were going or

why we had to go, ” said Casper, who now lives at Beacon Hill Lifespace

Community in Lombard. “I remember the paddy wagon was white and

it had bars, and we were just scared stiff.”

Casper and her sisters were forced to stay at the Audy Home for one night

before being placed at the Angel Guardian Orphanage in Chicago’s

Rogers Park neighborhood, after both her Italian immigrant parents died.

Her mother died of heart disease in 1944, and her father died of tuberculosis

a year later.

Casper lived at the orphanage for nine years, until she was 18. The nuns who

ran the orphanage acted as parents, and the other children became her family.

“The nuns were phenomenal,” she said. “Most were wonderful and very understanding but they insisted we work hard and study hard.”

Now, Casper collects figurines of nuns, to remind her of where she grew up and to honor the women who raised her. She said she saw a statue one day and picked it up. After that, it became her thing, she said, and she now has more than 100.

“They mean a lot to me. There’s a lot of love, a lot of care, and a lot of education [represented in the figurines]. They’ve given a lot to us,” Casper said.

Casper said she and the other children were “taken care of,” but at times, life at Angel Guardian was difficult.

“I sometimes felt lonely,” she said. “You’re in a crowd with lots of kids around, but you feel alone. I wished I could be in a regular home, to see what a regular house was like.”

Casper said there were about 800 children living there, but she stayed in a “cottage” with 39 other girls. She described the cottages as three huge rooms: one bathroom with sinks along a wall and three cracked toilets, a playroom with boxes for personal belongings, and a huge dorm with all the beds. There was only one nun in each cottage who took care of all 40 kids.

She said they did “typical kid stuff.” Two priests set up a skating rink in the basement of one of the buildings, and the kids played games and even had a movie night every other Saturday.

After she graduated from high school, Casper went to nursing school, married Joe Casper in 1957 and had three children. She now has five grandchildren.

She opened her own preschool in 1973 in Elk Grove Village, but closed the school in 1998 when she retired to take care of her ailing husband.

Marc Raben, leisure services assistant at Beacon Hill, said he’s amazed at Casper’s ability to persevere despite “growing up with nothing.”

“She was able to create a beautiful life and a beautiful family, and has dedicated her life to helping others,” he said. “I can’t imagine being a child and going through what she went through, and then to come out as amazing as she is. It definitely shaped who she is today.”

Alice Sommerville, Casper’s neighbor at Beacon Hill, described her as the “most amazing” woman she’s ever met.

“Her story isn’t always positive, with the strictness of the nuns, but because of her outlook, she looks at the good in her life and forgets the bad. She doesn’t dwell on the bad,” Sommerville said..

Casper said she remembers her childhood fondly, and even kept in touch with one of the nuns, Sister Gregory, who was one of her favorites while growing up.

“It was important for me to go back and take my children,” she said. “To show them where I grew up, to let them know what other people have done for me. You have to make the best of your life, no matter what. My sisters and I made good lives after difficult circumstances.”