Some homes in the northwest part of Oak Parkwill be illuminated by candles this week in remembrance of the victims of Friday’s school shooting in Connecticut.
Rachel Rettberg, an Oak Park mother to three sons, came up with the idea to put a pillar candle in front of her home, and many of her neighbors on Oak Park Avenue and its side streets followed suit. Rettberg said she felt helpless after hearing about the shooting because she wanted to do something to help.
“You want to show a sign that you’re grieving with these families,” she said.
On Sunday night, Rettberg decided to email a few friends and neighbors to tell them about the idea. Her sons, ages 4, 8 and 10, also supported it.
She ended up sending the email to a lot more than she initially thought, and those people forwarded it along to others. The email found its way to Facebook as well. Now, Rettberg said the candle-lighting has spread to a few other suburbs because of her email. Her mother in England is doing it too.
Rettberg said she’s been “amazed and kind of overwhelmed” at how much her idea caught on. She said she plans to light the candle each night through the weekend. If she did not have plans to leave town on Monday, Rettberg said she would have tried to light the candle for 26 nights — one night for each of the victims killed.