Death of 'everybody's grandmother' a tough but essential story

What if you had to write the obituary on your own grandmother?

With all due respect to Rose Tani's family, that's almost the situation we had in this newsroom when the news came in that a car-train collision at a Lombard railroad crossing had taken the life of 90-year-old Rose.

Some time ago, we put staff writer Cathi Edman on the latest space expedition of Lombard's favorite son, astronaut Dan Tani. As she does with many stories, she pursued this one with unusual gusto. She became a NASA buff, "obsessively" watching the NASA channel, which as even one space nut once told me, "can be as exciting as watching paint dry."

Cathi called Rose early in the months-long space mission, which is now extended to March, and often they just chatted. "I love octogenarians," Cathi says. "She was just a treasure. I enjoyed every single phone call with her."

Wednesday afternoon, we knew there had been a fatal accident at the intersection of Parkside and Elizabeth streets in Lombard. But when we heard it was Dan Tani's mom, we started looking for Cathi.

She had heard the news, too, and was taking it hard. She had conspired with Rose and daughter Christine for their help on a fun little feature involving the Tani family you'll see in Monday's Neighbor editions.

I talked to a teary-eyed Cathi as she was preparing to call family members and friends to put together the story of Rose Tani's amazing life. She dreaded making the calls, but also said, "I don't want this to be a 'Woman dies in train crash' story."

It wasn't.

I hope you had a chance to see Cathi's account of Rose in Thursday's paper. One friend described her as "everybody's grandmother." And the stories of her generosity, her love and pride in her family, especially Dan, just flowed.

Friends at her First Church of Lombard United Church of Christ recalled how she casually remarked, "I just talked to my son for 45 minutes, and he's in outer space."

"If she promised you a 10-inch pie and it turns out nine inches, she gives you two nine-inch pies," friend Barbara Barta told Cathi.

Rose had a rough life, too, but never complained, Cathi's story said. She lived in a Japanese internment camp, and told tales of her baby's diapers freezing on the clothesline. But never with rancor or bitterness. She and her husband moved to Lombard in 1964. He died a year later, and Rose was left on her own to raise five kids.

One other thing I should mention: Whenever we have an important story, it never ceases to impress me how the people in the newsroom pitch in to help out.

Wednesday night, while working the story of Rose Tani's life, Cathi learned of a profile the church newsletter ran a couple years ago on Rose. Assistant city editor Anne Halston ran to the church, picked it up and brought it back to the office. Melynda Findlay, a community news coordinator, stayed late to type it into the computer system. Alas, we didn't have room for it in the paper, but it's on our Web site, dailyherald.com. (And if you don't have a computer, give us a call at (630) 955-3500, and we'll send you a copy.)

It, too, really captures Rose's spirit, ending with a series of "did you knows" about her. My favorite two were:

• She does all of her own housework (at age 88) and mowed her own lawn until this year?

• She still gardens an 18 by 40 foot plot, although she has finally quit digging it by hand?

Small wonder she was known as "everyone's grandmother."