'Please … pray for Taylor to be safe'
The little girl who has touched so many of your hearts is firmly embedded in mine. Taylor Radtke's mom and dad, Laurie and Jeff Radtke, are asking for our prayers as they ready for their precious child's risky brain surgery Thursday. Everyone's a bit of a mess, Laurie told me. The Johnsburg family is terrified of what doctors will find once they get inside the 7-year-old's head.
The biggest fear? What if surgeons decide they can't, after all, do anything to save this special little girl who loves animals and cheerleading? It is the unthinkable for a sweet soul who has brought smiles and tears to people across the country and who is treasured most by her family terrified these have been their final days together.
"Right now this time with Taylor and Blake and the two of us, spending time together has just been vital," Laurie said. She and Jeff and their young ones just kind of hung out in Phoenix, reading, swimming, playing miniature golf and games the past couple of days.
They took Taylor for pre-surgery tests Tuesday morning. Surgery is scheduled for early Thursday.
"We've all but stopped breathing," the Radtkes wrote on Taylor's Care Page update Tuesday. "Prayers can't come too often from everyone so, please, as often as you can, pray for Taylor to be kept safe and for her little body to fight hard once again."
To a little girl who has captured our hearts, we sure are pulling for you!
Bunco rocks!
One look around the Crystal Lake Holiday Inn Sunday and you knew you were part of something special. I was fortunate enough to be among more than 500 women who blew away last year's record-setting Bunco for Breast Cancer event. Not only were there more of us, we were at multiple locations -- including Aruba! -- and we topped last year's amazing $30,000 for breast cancer research. It was an emotional event with survivors drawing standing ovations and more than one of us shedding tears. Not that that stopped us from having a blast at playing Bunco.
The addition of four women newly diagnosed this year made it clear the efforts of an amazing Susan Martino and daughters Tracy Noe and Laura Littner are clearly needed. These women who started the event after both Tracy and Laura were diagnosed with breast cancer have truly made a difference.
Probing for truth
Much has been written about the resignation of Bill LeFew as head of McHenry County's Republican Party in light of a complaint filed with the Illinois Attorney General about McHenry County State's Attorney Lou Bianchi. Clearly LeFew and Bianchi are rivals and that, of course, raises the ugly specter of politics in the mix.
Did LeFew really resign because he felt there would be a conflict with his role as the county's treasurer providing documents or because he felt it would harm a political rival?
Only he can ultimately answer that, but I've known him a long time and never found him to waver from that ethical line. In the wake of multiple hits in recent days, he said he had no regrets. He did what he felt was right.
Bianchi has staunchly defended the more than $17,000 he was reimbursed for candy, ice cream, meals, poinsettias, etc., as legitimate business expenses. If they are legit, I'd think he'd eagerly welcome an independent attorney general's investigation to clear things up.
Wouldn't you?
"Holloween"
OK, all you ghosts and goblins, the Hollow is hollering. Wayne Eischen of the Sleepy Hollow Service Club asked me to let you know we're all welcome for the annual Halloween in the Hollow, starting at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Sabatino Park.
You'll find pumpkin decorating, games, hayrides, the always fabulous costume parade at 4 p.m. (hey, you grown-ups can don a costume, too! You might just win a prize!) and the ever-popular bonfire at dusk. Yes, the Headless Horseman will make his eerie ride.
You'll find plenty of food, including chili, hot dogs, hot and cold apple cider, hot chocolate, water and -- best part -- plenty of pumpkin and apple pie. Rain date is Sunday.
On the roads
West Dundee Village President Larry Keller asked me to invite all of you frustrated motorists to the Longmeadow Parkway meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday at the West Dundee Public Safety Building at Carrington Drive and Route 72. They're trying to ease the ever-growing gridlock in this region and they need your input to do it. Stop by, even if for just a little bit. If you pack the house like we pack our roads, someone might just notice.