Good Power

2

Expanding My World

My Aunt Di is only twelve years older than me. When I was young, she would walk to my parents’ apartment after school to play with Joe and me. After my family moved to Bellwood, she rode the train to see us. To me, she felt more like an older sister than an aunt. I looked up to Di, and I was just in elementary school when I visited her at Northern Illinois University, where she spent two years before transferring to DePaul University in Chicago. She was the first person in our family to get a higher education degree.

Di planned to become a teacher but switched to studying business. Her first job after graduating was at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a chaotic, loud, unruly environment with few women. Her job was to record ...