Two days before she was to be sworn in as an American citizen, 83-year-old Korean-born Keum Ja Lee was in a car accident. She suffered brain injuries and a broken rib. She recovered sufficiently to go home but “was going down the drain,” says her daughter, Jung J. Cha, who owns a tailor/cleaning store on Diversey Parkway. “She needed a reason to live. To be an American citizen was the most important thing to her. But she thought because she missed the ceremony, there would be no way.”
Cha told the story to her customers and one of them told it to indefatigable Senior U. S. District Judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz.
On July 31 the judge showed up at the door of Lee’s apartment.
“If it’s dream, don’t wake me up,” said Lee.
The naturalization ceremony took five minutes.
“But the judge stayed for an hour,” says Cha. “I am crying because I am happy. The judge is crying too. He saved my mother’s life.”
Marovitz, who just turned 92, has been swearing in new citizens for decades. Few, perhaps, ever have been as grateful as Lee and her daughter.
