Editorial: Barbara Glueckert and a reminder about love
Bob Glueckert is 55 now, a middle-aged man with a family of his own.
Four decades have passed since his sister Barbara disappeared - 40 birthdays; 40 years of births and passings, holidays and picnics; a relentless march of time in which Barbara's world remained frozen but Bob's was remade by historic moments, technological revolution and breathtaking innovation.
It was so long ago. Bob Glueckert at 55 is older, wiser, more experienced, more mature than the teenager he was then.
But ask about his sister, as Daily Herald columnist Dann Gire did, and Bob Glueckert is transported back to the chair in Mount Prospect where he sat as a 15-year-old doorman letting the stream of neighbors stop in to comfort his terrified mother in the middle of that night when Barbara didn't return home.
It was 40 years ago, and still the tears well up when he remembers with guilt a sibling relationship marked, not atypically, by conflict.
"She was only 14 years old when she went, and we were not the best of friends," Bob Glueckert confided. "She was 12 months behind me. We were like brutal enemies. We were constantly arguing, you know."
The most powerful theme in Gire's poignant retrospective published on our pages a week ago was the volume of lives that were affected. And how deep the effects have been.
"Barbara was the victim," neighbor Gerry Wyatt said. "(But) I don't think many people realize how many victims there were."
Barbara Glueckert, whose body never has been found, did not deserve what happened to her. She is not to blame.
But she took a risk. She headed out of town to a party, lying about where she was going, getting into a car with someone she didn't know. She took a risk. As so many teenagers do.
As so many adults do too. Like almost all of us do. Speeding in your car, drinking to excess, smoking. It's not just teens running around in unsafe places after dark. So many of us take risks, at least on occasion.
When we do, we tend to think that nothing bad will happen but that if it does, we're the ones who will suffer.
For all those who take risks, we wish everyone would read Gire's piece on Glueckert. It drives home how many others suffer, too.
We wish everyone would understand that if you take a risk and something goes wrong, everyone you love gets hurt, too.
Take care with the hearts of those you love and of those who love you.
And while we are wishing, let us also wish peace for Bob Glueckert.
If Barbara were here today, Bob, she would be 54. She too would be older and wiser. We have no doubt she would put her arms around you and try to take away your pain.
She no doubt would say you have nothing to feel guilty for.