Community Corner

100-Year-Old Fire Victim was 'Inspirational,' Devoted to Others

Opal Reifenberg died in a blaze last weekend, shortly before her 101th birthday. The long-time Wilmette Library employee was remembered by friends and family as a caring, active, engaged woman.

When describing Opal Reifenberg, one word is consistently mentioned by all who knew her — inspirational.

The 100-year-old Wilmette Public Library employee, who died in a condo fire last weekend, was beloved by many and known around the community for her upbeat attitude, sweet nature and devotion to others.

“She was always positive, always cheerful — she enjoyed the small pleasures in life that many of us overlook,” her son Robert Reifenberg said. For example, she’d often point out different trees or sights along the way that other people might not see.

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Robert said his mother always strove to have a purpose, whether it was caring for her family or her job at the library, which she took at age 75 after her husband died.

Devotion to her growing family

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“My dad died in 1991,” Robert said. “Her purpose was my dad. When he died, she struggled. … But within months, my wife told her that we were expecting triplets. She had found her new purpose!”

He said that from day one, she was there with the babies, changing diapers and feeding them in the middle-of-the-night.

“She was like a second mother to our kids,” he said.

A devoted library employee

She applied that same dedication to the library.

“It didn’t matter that she was 100,” said Gayle Rosenberg Justman, Opal’s supervisor at the library. “She loved the library, she loved ideas and she loved people.”

Library Director Ellen Clark agreed.

“She was one of those people,” Clark said. “You looked at her and she was a little woman. … But underneath, she was a sparkly, colorful, amazing woman.”

Opal had a lifelong love of books and learning, which she instilled in her children at a young age and continued throughout her 25 years at the Wilmette library, where she prepared the new books for check-out, by putting book covers, stamps and barcodes on them.

“She loved getting to see the new books as they came in,” Robert said. “That was her heaven.”

Justman said that Opal was an ideal employee.

“She was self-motivated, she really wanted to be at work,” she said. “What an inspiration for us to show what keeping your mind engaged, exercising and loving your family … can do.”

“We should all be Opal,” Justman added.

Helping others in her quiet way

Opal touched many lives across the community during her 60 years in Wilmette — often in her own quiet way.

Robert remembered when the family lived on Birchwood Lane. The family across the street was involved in a terrible car crash thRat killed the father and left the mother disabled.

“Every morning at 6 a.m., [my mother] would go across the street and bathe her, feed her and take care of her son,” Robert said. “Then she’d make lunch and later in the day, she’d bring over a homemade dinner. And she did all of this without ever mentioning it to anyone. She just did it because that was who she was.”

The family asks that memorials be made to the Wilmette Public Library, because "no other place made her that happy," her son said. 


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