Prospect Hts. woman dies in crash in Lombard

Poetry was Penny Bordsen's passion.

She wrote her first poem about a cat named Cookie when she was just 4. But she took a break from her craft to raise her two children and support her family with a job in computer systems and software.

When she retired five years ago, she quickly delved back into to poetry full-time, said her daughter Deborah McGrath. Bordsen produced scores of inspirational and religious-themed works during that time. She joined a writers group, published several works and taught poetry at a local private school.

Reading her works now helps McGrath cope with the sudden loss of her mother in a car crash on Sunday in Lombard.

"I was in awe of her," McGrath said. "She would write special-occasion poems for fun. And sometimes, a small income."

Lombard police Deputy Chief Dane Cuny said the crash that killed the 71-year-old Prospect Heights woman occurred when her husband, David, was making a left turn on a red light and was struck by an oncoming car. The crash happened at about 1 p.m. Sunday on North Avenue, near the I-355 junction.

Cuny said David Bordsen was driving a 1993 Volvo east on North Avenue and attempted a left turn onto northbound I-355 when the car was struck by a 2004 automobile driven west by an unidentified 62-year-old Wheaton man. Penny Bordsen was the passenger in her husband's car and her side of the vehicle took the brunt of the force. An unidentified 44-year-old male passenger in the back seat of the Bordsen car was seriously injured and remains hospitalized at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, Cuny said.

No charges have been filed in the crash and DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett said, "I would not immediately anticipate charges."

Both drivers sustained minor injuries, but were treated and released from area hospitals shortly after the crash, Cuny said.

McGrath said her stepfather and mother were returning with a neighbor from viewing a replica viking ship being built at a park in Geneva.

Once a month, Sharon Faciana would see Penny Bordsen and hear some of her most recent works as part of a poetry writers group meeting at the Indian Trails Library in Wheeling.

"This is such a shock," Faciana said. "She was life-filled. She was very creative and used our group as an outlet for that creativity. We had a style or a theme we'd work with every month, but we're called the Poetic License Writers Group, so you could really do what ever you felt. She tended to write more or less about things that were pertinent in her life."

McGrath said her mother loved meeting new people, and those folks would sometimes inspire her art. She also said her mother always helped those in need.

"She loved life and I watched her take in people who needed a hand," she said. "She took in a United pilot who's house burned down. She took in an unwed mother who needed help after being in prison and got her back on her feet and helped get her child back."

Funeral arrangements are pending.