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After a massacre took one of their own, the ‘Cheers’ of Highland Park has turned into a pillar of support and healing
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Each week, 88-year-old Stephen Straus stuffed the seat together with his jovial persona, making quick associates with strangers on the fixture in Highland Park, Illinois.
“My husband Steven and I had an important evening on the bar at Norton’s just a bit over every week in the past with this wonderful man, Stephen Straus. That evening we made a brand new good friend! He shared tales about his exercise routines, how he nonetheless rode a motorbike a number of miles a day,” she mentioned.
“The three of us shared laughs collectively as we ate and drank. I bear in mind how animated and candy he was … and completely engaged in life.”
Since then, the restaurant the place he introduced a lot pleasure has grow to be an epicenter of assist for these younger and outdated searching for consolation amid despair.
‘My job right here is to make individuals pleased’
The blur darting between the kitchen, bar and patio is Israel “Izzy” Velez. He is half bartender, half server and occasional fill-in supervisor. However Velez prefers a a lot less complicated job description:
“My job right here is to make individuals pleased.”
On this evening, his job is required greater than ever. It is the day after workers and regulars realized of Straus’ demise.
It is also Wednesday — an evening when Straus and Velez would usually catch up beneath the backdrop of the Chicago sports activities paraphernalia overlaying the blond brick partitions.
Velez gazed on the empty barstool the place his longtime good friend ought to be sitting.
“It is laborious,” Velez mentioned, rising emotional. “He was a really, very, very good man.”
However then Velez shortly composed himself. He needed to provide prospects a way of consolation — a pleasant refuge from the grief enveloping the town.
“I’ve to placed on my pleased face,” he mentioned.
From throughout the restaurant, he began greeting prospects.
“That is Michael. That is Bobby,” he mentioned, as he waved towards the other nook.
And shortly he was off, reconnecting with those that wanted a chilly Previous Model or Corona, a “Norton” burger or a plate of ribs — and the heat of a well-recognized face.
To heal, the assist should go each methods
Jonathon Levin and his daughter, Becca, needed to get near the epicenter of the assault — to not see the overturned garden chairs and deserted strollers that littered the crime scene, however to assist impacted companies shut by.
“We did not know what was open or not. So we actually mentioned, ‘Let’s drive in the direction of Norton’s and see what’s open as a result of every little thing’s been blocked off,'” Levin mentioned.
“Once we noticed it was open, we mentioned, ‘We have now to come back right here. We have to assist our neighborhood. We have now to be right here.'”
Although Levin has visited Norton’s many occasions, an eerie feeling washed over him as he obtained nearer to the realm the place so many lives had been viciously taken.
“As a resident, it is scary. It is unhappy. However we have got to maneuver on. We have to maintain going,” Levin mentioned. “And a part of maintain going is to hug everyone, assist everyone, and encourage everyone one step at a time.”
‘Be sure to have sneakers that you simply’re in a position to run in’
On Norton’s patio only a few blocks from the bloodbath scene, Maya Stolarsky is celebrating her fifteenth birthday.
She lives in close by Deerfield, however her household has deep ties to Highland Park. Maya’s mom, Amy, grew up right here. Her youthful sister, Eden, 12, loves going to the downtown pancake home now cordoned off by police tape.
“It will be unsettling,” the teenager mentioned. “I might positively be eager about it. It will be all the time at the back of my thoughts.”
Shortly after Monday’s bloodbath that additionally left dozens injured, Amy Stolarsky knew it was time to provide her daughters some grim recommendation about going to public occasions.
“What did I say?” Stolarsky quizzed her women on the desk.
“To all the time be sure to have sneakers that you simply’re in a position to run in,” Maya replied.
Stolarsky by no means imagined giving her women that counsel. “It is a disgusting factor that I felt like I needed to say out loud,” she mentioned.
But when a parade filled with households and youngsters can devolve right into a scene of carnage, her daughters should be ready for any state of affairs.
Eden, the 12-year-old, mentioned she understands the significance of taking precautions. However she’s not going to reside her life in concern.
Actually, Eden’s already eager about going to the Highland Park Fourth of July parade subsequent yr — “to be there in the identical place and assist” the neighborhood.
Highland Park residents mourned different victims of mass shootings … and now their very own
Only a few blocks from Norton’s, a memorial honoring victims of gun violence sits in entrance of The Artwork Middle.
For weeks, Highland Park residents have walked previous the exhibit, which opened final month, and grieved for these senselessly killed throughout the nation.
“If you see this stuff occur, particularly with mass shootings, I maintain pondering: ‘This one’s gonna be the top. This information will finish this cycle,'” Stolarsky mentioned after Maya blew out the candle on her birthday sundae.
“And it hasn’t occurred but. I am nonetheless ready for that to occur.”
