This week has obviously been one of the toughest in my life. The death of my mother, Angela Piazza Turley, was not unexpected. She died a few days shy of her 98th birthday after a long struggle.
She was my inspiration and my North Star as a public interest lawyer. I dedicated my recent book to her as the person “who taught me that life is an unyielding passionate pursuit of justice.”
I was the baby of five kids and spent much of my childhood clinging on to her skirts for dear life as she confronted slum landlords, wife beaters, and gang bangers in the Uptown area.
She was the toughest person I have ever known. Growing up as a Sicilian coal miner’s daughter in the depression in Ohio, she learned how to fight hard to survive. My father and mother arrived in Chicago with less than $2 in their pockets at night in the dead of winter. They bought two cups of coffee (the only thing that they could afford). Before they left, my mother had a job as waitress.
Fresh from World War II, my father came to Chicago to study under Mies van der Rohe and became one of his closest associates. (He is buried near Mies at Graceland Cemetery). Even after my father became a partner in Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, my mother never forgot what it was to be dirt poor and spent her life helping others as a social worker, president of Jane Addams Hull House, and the founder of a myriad of public service groups in Chicago, including a community credit union to support local businesses and families.
She was fearless and fierce in fighting for others. She left a mark on Chicago in the lives of thousands who benefitted from her work over nine decades.
As I return to work, I wanted to say thank you to the thousands who have posted messages on my blog and my X account. I cannot express how much it has meant to me and my family. This has always been a community, but, in the last week, it felt more like an extended family. I read aloud many of your comments to my family and we felt that we were surrounded by thousands of loving arms. I never felt alone despite losing one of the central figures in my life.
I will be writing about my Mom next week as we prepare for her mass and funeral in Chicago on August 1-2 at St. Mary’s of the Lake Church on the Northside of Chicago. Until then, I can only say thank you, every one of you, for being there.
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Author: jonathanturley
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