A memory, and a message
It was a simple but profound gesture.
Hours after Caitlin Elizabeth Weese drew her last breath in May 2003, her grieving family drove out near Gilberts, stopping at the Route 72 site where the Larkin High School senior's car was struck as a drunken driver swerved into oncoming traffic.
They laid down a dozen pink roses, Caitlin's favorite kind.
In the months and years that followed, friends and relatives placed other tributes at the site. Wooden crosses. Teddy bears. Letters. Candles.
"Somebody stopped once as I was cleaning up (the memorial)," said Caitlin's stepfather, Joel Mains of Wonder Lake. "They wanted to know what happened here."
Come Wednesday, a more permanent tribute will lay bare the tragedy.
At a 10:30 a.m. news conference at Gilberts' Waitcus Park, Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown and the Illinois Department of Transportation will unveil the state's first Roadside Memorial Marker, a simple blue and white sign that reads, "Please Don't Drink and Drive: In Memory of Caitlin E. Weese, May 22, 2003."
The Roadside Memorial Marker Program is a result of legislation proposed by the Tina Ball Memorial Task Force, a group formed after construction worker Tina Ball was struck and killed in a work zone on Interstate 57 by a drunken driver in September 2003.
The legislation, which went into effect in January and was refined in August, allows signs to be placed at state highway crash sites state to honor those killed in drunken driving accidents.
As members of the task force, the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists, or AAIM, has long advocated for the signs, AAIM spokeswoman Marti Belluschi said.
The purpose of the program is threefold.
"While the program is there to memorialize these terrible tragedies and this horrible loss of life, it's also an excellent prevention tool for our state to get the word out and remind people that drunken driving kills," Belluschi said.
Officials also hope the markers will reduce the number of makeshift memorials, which, some say, can be distracting to drivers.
For Joel Mains, the signs serve as another reminder of the bond between Caitlin and her mother, Diane.
Shortly after Caitlin's death, Diane Mains went to work for Schaumburg-based AAIM, as a speaker and victims' advocate for the group.
Diane died in August 2006, shortly after being diagnosed with a heart condition. Joel Mains now serves as a member of the group's board of directors, carrying on his wife's work.
Memorial markers will stay up for seven years, said Joe Hill, engineer of operations at IDOT.
Families who have lost loved ones to drunken driving can request an application for a marker from IDOT. Crashes must have occurred on or after Jan. 1, 1990. The cost per marker is $150.
If the crash occurred on a local road, applications must be presented through the village or county, Hill said.
Word about the signs is being spread by word-of-mouth. But Hill said IDOT plans to make information available on the Web in the near future.
"I hope seeing a sign with Caitlin's name, or with another victim's name, will make somebody stop and think," Joel Mains said. "... A more visible reminder of what was lost."