Hanover Park resident tells of medical catastrophe, recovery

Hanover Park resident Susan Ciacura will speak on how her family was altered by a medical catastrophe that occurred 25 years ago at 7:15 p.m. today at Schaumburg Public Library, 13 S. Roselle Road, Schaumburg.

It's a story she manages to make fascinating, inspiring and surprisingly humorous in her talk, "A Life Derailed: Hope After a Medical Catastrophe."

Ciaciura, a flight attendant, was 1,200 miles from home and feeling absolutely helpless when she heard her 7-year-old son's tearful voice on the phone saying "Daddy's dying!"

"I was trying to stay calm and assure my little boy that daddy would be fine, while simultaneously thinking the worst," she said in a news release. "Being so far from home and unable to help while not knowing what was happening was the most frightening experience of my life."

She called neighbors and relatives frantically trying to get someone to help her 36-year-old husband, who, she later learned, was in the midst of suffering a brain aneurysm and debilitating stroke.

Although their life's trajectory was completely derailed, Susan's family managed over the following years to pull it back together again, leading a full and joyful life.

The free event is sponsored by The Branch Christian Fellowship, a new church that meets 10:30 am Sundays at Robert Frost Junior High, 320 W. Wise Road, Schaumburg. Information is at the-branch.cc.