I was drawn to “A family wedding in a family house” [Homes, Dec. 3]. Only after reading it did I notice the picture of the house behind the wedding couple. My reaction: “I know that house!” When my husband and I were planning to side our old house (I’m afraid we did) many, many years ago (I claim ignorance), we drove around Oak Park to find a house with the colors we might like. My husband found your house. Indeed, we sided ours in cream, trimmed in taupe and red. I’ve driven by your house many times since. It’s one of my favorites in Oak Park.
And we had our daughter’s wedding in our backyard, so the other pictures brought back more memories. In prep for our wedding, while our plumbing had been done, we did clean up our basement, which could be seen from the powder room on the landing above.
We were so very lucky to have wonderful neighbors on either side who opened their backyards (and ground-floor powder rooms) to our gathering. We had a dance floor in one yard, the barbeque setup in the other, and more staging materials in the garage. Tents and lights abounded.
Not an avid gardener, I hired a landscaper to take out two old bushes and advise on plants. He said, “Buy what you like,” and showed me how to group them. But this was a summer of periodic torrential rains that repeatedly drowned the flowers I’d planted, because … we had the lowest backyard on the block! I was repeatedly replanting.
But on wedding day, a miracle happened. Our inherited orange daylilies were in full bloom along the north and south sides of the yard. Thankfully, we had no rain for the wedding … until about 9 p.m. when torrents drenched us, dripping through the separations between the tents. Fortunately, most guests were gone by then!
Thank you for your article, which brought back memories and a feeling of kinship and connection to a house in Oak Park — and a family I’ve never met.
Phyllis Rubin
River Forest
