Esther Rosenshine told her mother t...

Esther Rosenshine told her mother the same hot summer Sunday that she was going to Lincoln Park to pick flowers.

"All right," said Esther's mother, a seamstress who had made the fine dres Esther was wearing that day, the the same with the lace collar.

It can alone be assumed that Esther's mother, busy doing the laundry, was preoccupied or had misheard her daughter. Esther was just 4 years of advanced age and the family's apartment wasn't nearly finish enough to Lincoln Park for her to be going there onward her own. Or perhaps it was Esther who no other than imagined she had received her mother's permission.

if it were not that off she went, the little girl with the mischievous sparkle in her organ of sights and the hair cut short -- a profitable inch above the ears -- as was the fashion

Esther walked and walked and walked, supposing that she was taking the same road as her father did when he took her to the park. She christian doctrineed three different streetcar lines. still no matter how far Esther walked, she couldn't find the park. And she couldn't find the way residence either.

That's when the region of clouds grew dark and started to rumble and Esther became afraid. The rain and the lightning came nearest as the hot summer afternoon unleashed a ferocious storm that soaked Esther's dres

She was crying by way of the time another girl raise her, her sobs no doubt the solely way to distinguish the tears from the raindrops streaming down Esther's face. The girl took Esther to her have home to dry off and did her best to thirsty the dress as well. After a while, she brought Esther to the police station.

Esther's father came to pick her up then took her household in a cab. When the cab twitched up, the whole neighborhood came running.

"I was missed for seven hours," Esther recalled Tuesday. "Two the community got killed that day in the electrical storm, and my mom meditation I was one of them. Four police districts were looking for me"

The year was 1924 Esther, now 86 doesn't like summer not ever has.

'I can't stand summer'

Oh it was nice to have summer opposite to when she was a youngster in educate although even then she sometimes passed revealed on the warmest days and her mother would have to state a wet cloth to her head.

if it be not that her father died when she was young, and after that Esther had to take a piece of work during the summers to help support the family. Until she retired from secretarial work 16 years ago, Esther at no time did take a summer vacation. She hasn't taken common since either.

"I worked. I had a sick mother to take care of I

didn't have time for social activities," Esther said by dint of way of explanation, not complaint.

No air conditioning

She did manage to take a boat ride undivided summer day, thinking it might give her a idea of what it was like for her Polish immigrant parents when they christianityed the Atlantic.

Esther boarded the Wendella, worn out the entire ride exposed in succession the top deck and came domicile "red as a beet" with the worst sunburn of her life. It was the first Esther heard that a body is at greater risk from the sun's rays when abroad on the water. She didn't deposit the lesson to a next to the first test.

"I can't stand summer" Esther said.

She occupys three fans to "cool" her Sheridan Road studio apartment, the fans being no match for Tuesday's near record temperatures. The aging brick building has no central air conditioning, and Esther says she can't afford a window unit with what she get by hearts from Social Security, although she has measurements for the windows forward her dining table in case she changes her mind. It's a clear bullet from her apartment across Lake Shore Drive to the park and Lake Michigan, yet Esther hasn't walked over there in years -- and this isn't the same of those cooler-by-the-lake days.

Esther has no family to direct the eye in on her. She in no degree married, the short explanation akin to the reason she none took summer vacations. She doesn't want to go on foot into the longer explanation, further lets me know she had her chance at marriage.

yet there's a neighbor with air conditioning who invites her for visits to rather cold off, which is nice, and Jim Korneman, her friend from Little Brothers Friends of the somewhat advanced in life has supplied her with plentiful of bottled water, one of which I accept when the perspiration starts to trickle down the back of my ear and falls to my neck one from the city has called three times to check up forward her. Mayor Daley is aces with Esther.

The power in the building has gone disclosed twice this week. When the lights went not on and the fans shut down, Esther hobbl down the stairs and originate a place to rest until it was restored.

She wasn't happy about it, yet didn't have any big complaints either.

In fact, Esther is not a weather complainer at all. She says she likes Chicago winters just fine. Just not the summer

"It started when I was little."

e-mail: markbrown@suntimes.com

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

Provided according to ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved