We asked for your stories about Oak Park’s famed locks of love, patterned after Paris’ Pont des Arts, a pedestrian bridge where sweethearts once affixed locks and threw the key in the Seine to symbolize their devotion to the other.
When the village begins the beautification project along Oak Park Avenue, officials said they’ll move the locks. The location is not known.
In the meantime, Melissa McDow melted our hearts with her story. We’re sure you’ll feel verklempt, too:
“My husband and I moved back to Oak Park in April 2014. One day, probably around May or June, we took a walk downtown. We were leaving the Irish Shop (no longer there) and headed south on Oak Park Avenue. That’s where we saw the fence wall under the Green Line with a few locks. After reading the sign, I immediately said, “Honey, we have to do this!” So my quest began — looking for the right lock, thinking about a saying/quote to put on it, deciding if we put our names, the date we met or married, etc.
When we made our final decisions, we walked back to the fence and “locked” our love and threw away the key. That was in August 2014. Since then, each time we walked by the fence, we saw how many more locks were up. We had a hard time finding ours because of the number of locks that had appeared over the years. Every time we walked by or drove by, I think of that day when we put our lock on the fence. We walked by the fence recently — the quote I put on the lock is smudged beyond recognition — but we know what it says; our names are still somewhat visible.
We thought this was a great idea and loved that so many others wanted to “lock” their love and throw away the key. We heard rumors that they were going to take this down —we really hope not. It’s become a part of Oak Park, it’s become a part of all who expressed their love to each other.
It shows that love does conquer all.