You were in your 90s. We got introduced by a mutual friend who likely knew that we were kindred activist spirits. A longtime River Forest resident, you now were at Brookdale Senior Living and played a role there, of course. You participated in a Saturday morning current events group that I’d heard about when another friend moved there. Now we were connecting because I was collecting plastic to be made into free benches for our communities. You’d heard about the project and wanted to participate.
And you sure did! You got your Brookdale neighbors to save their plastic that you would collect and give to me. Then … you got the Brookdale staff to save their plastic – from food deliveries and other things.
The day before you died, while I was picking up your plastic, the receptionist called you over. “Millie, I have plastic for you!” and she handed you a small bag that you turned over to me, introducing me as “the plastic lady.”
But you didn’t stop at plastic. You learned I was distributing postcards to voters and asked if you could get some. “Some,” you did! It started out small. Maybe you asked for 500 in packs of 50 – always packs of 50. Two weeks later, you’d ask for 500 more. Then you’d ask for 1,000. For every election, the numbers grew. I think this current election you had asked for at least 2,000.
Then, the text that you had died that morning. … Millie, you stayed a force right to the end. Power in a small, 90-some-year-old woman.
Don’t tell anyone that older age means irrelevant. Millie was anything but.
Phyllis Rubin
River Forest