The women mourning the deaths of eight they considered sisters know the harshness of isolation in a strange country.
They also know the joy of finding kindred spirits–adventurous, educated, resilient.
“I had felt so alone,” said Doreen Feitelberg, who more than 6 years ago moved to Chicago from South Africa.
Then she met a group known as the International Women Associates, and somehow language and cultural barriers disappeared.
It was almost as if she had found a family: women who recognized something in one another, a shared experience of having traveled the world and been transplanted to a place where they knew no one.
When Edma Dumanian, an Armenian from Syria, moved to Chicago, the isolation felt crushing.
“There was no way for me to meet people who came from outside,” said Dumanian, who speaks English, Spanish, French and Arabic.
“There was no one I could talk to about my world.”
The stories of Feitelberg and Dumanian are echoed among many current and former members of the 25-year-old Chicago-based International Women Associates, which on Wednesday lost eight friends in a horrific bus accident on Interstate Highway 90.
The women were returning from a Japanese garden in Rockford when a tractor-trailer tore through the side of their tour bus, injuring 15 and ending the lives of eight accomplished women whose stories spanned the globe.
“The world is definitely a less interesting place without these ladies,” said Mary Niehaus, a board member of the group.
As it has evolved to a 400-member non-profit organization, the group has stressed the importance of building cultural bridges while helping newcomers with tasks that range from finding a good school to locating a decent dry cleaner. In the process, the women become like sisters, said Nola Conte.
When Conte, a native of Australia, moved to the Midwest in 1999 because of her husband’s job, she thought she might die of loneliness.
She stumbled on the group’s number in the phone book and was instantly invited to join.
“I think it saved my life in Chicago,” said Conte, who recently moved with her family to Michigan.
Traditionally the wives of international businessmen or government officials, membership has come to include retired foreign service workers, women in international relations and others.
Other women–perhaps lawyers or doctors in their own land who can’t obtain a work permit in the U.S.–come to the group for intellectual stimulation, said D. Clancy, a writer who often traveled abroad when she was Chicago’s director of tourism.
`Role model’
“We’re a good role model for the world,” she said. “We are from 57 countries, some of which have been at odds with one another over the years. Given the world situation today, where everybody is so afraid of everybody else, this organization is like a beacon.”
International Women Associates is one of the first places a foreign consul general’s wife goes to find people with shared cultural interests.
Its volunteers fan out across the city, visiting classrooms to introduce students to different cultures, escorting visitors and providing translator services to hospital patients.
The group keeps a monthly calendar jammed with foreign-language conversation groups, a literature group and excursions.
During the Bosnian war, the group offered lectures on the conflict and the historical background of the region. Recently, it presented a seminar on women in Islam.
“It’s not a group of ladies who lunch,” Niehaus said. “These are women who have so much talent and energy and desire to help people out, it’s amazing.”
For those who came to the U.S. in the shadow of a professionally powerful husband, the “first lady” role can be tiring and restrictive.
“The beauty of the organization is that you’re just you,” said Elena Phillips, a former president of the group and a native of Italy who moved to the U.S. from Hong Kong.
“You never talk about status or anything. You’re no longer Mrs. So-and-So. You’re just you.”
At least four people involved in Wednesday’s crash remained hospitalized Saturday, one in critical condition.
The life stories of the eight women who died bear testament to the individuality of the people who make up International Women Associates.
Olga “Oogie” Buenz, 66, was a math and science whiz, a longtime member of the League of Women Voters, a traveler, an activist and, to many, the glue that held her Chicago neighborhood together.
Friends remember when, in the 1970s, Buenz led a boycott of an elementary school that was not treating its teachers fairly.
Tutored kids
They recall how she tutored local kids in math and science in a classroom set up in her home.
They talk about her tales of exotic trips and travel, and the way she rallied others to help a neighbor who was battling cancer.
She dabbled in astronomy with a telescope set up in the house, and she loved to sail, read and talk about literature.
“She got me interested in things I would have never been interested in if left on my own,” said her husband, John Buenz.
“She opened up a lot of the world for me.”
Boundless energy
Sonia Aladjem was a woman of boundless energy and independence, who at 74 looked as if she were in her 50s.
“Whenever you saw my mother, you couldn’t help but be lifted up,” said her daughter Vivien Mudgett.
“I can’t describe the love of life she had. The French call it joie de vivre. She took pleasure in all.”
Aladjem was born in Uruguay, spoke seven languages, moved to the U.S. when she was in her 40s and had a master’s degree in French literature and a doctorate in sociology.
She worked for 10 years as the director general of Chicago’s Alliance Francaise, a French cultural and learning center.
French President Jacques Chirac recently gave her a medal for her work in America.
Born in Finland, Marita Landa, 66, was tall and blond, a striking woman who worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa in recent years.
Peggy Albert, 75, was a former teacher and a crack bridge player who traveled to such places as Bali and Belize. She avoided tourist traps, preferring to explore corners on her own.
On weekends she worked as a docent for the Chicago Architecture Foundation, giving boat tours along the Chicago River.
Another seasoned traveler, Jane K. Hand loved the arts.
Her son Charles Kuoni said his mother was mysterious about her age and was probably in her early 80s rather than 76, as police reported.
She was also a strong golfer, even in her 70s.
“When I played golf with her, we always made her play from the men’s tees, because that’s the only chance we had of beating her,” he said.
Irma Oppenheimer, 64, grew up in Ecuador, then traveled to Chicago as a teenager to attend Elmhurst College.
After obtaining a bachelor’s degree, she studied interior design at the Art Institute of Chicago.
She went on to start the Oppenheimer Family Fund, which awards grants to Chicago teachers, and she never stopped learning.
She read, traveled and recently enrolled in French classes.
“She was full of life, which is why it’s hard to imagine her gone,” said her daughter, Julie Oppenheimer.
Born in Japan, Jeanette Notardonato, 53, had worked in marketing and married an Italian businessman.
Friendly messages
Friends recall that every morning she would call the International Women Associates offices with a “message of the day,” saying things like, “Today, everyone must be cheery.”
Cecilia “Ce” Ellis, 54, was a quiet and dignified woman, the wife of a Chicago manufacturing executive.
Tall and slender with sparkling blue eyes, Ellis had a taste for fine jewelry but also loved getting her hands dirty in the garden.
The Kansas native spent two years living in France with her husband and upon moving to Chicago became an enthusiastic member of International Women Associates, regularly hosting events at her home.
Ellis was soon to move to Houston.
Never have to be alone
When she found out that another group member was headed there, the women planned to move together. That way, they decided, they would never have to be alone.
Services are as follows:
Oppenheimer, 10:30 a.m. Sunday at 303 W. Barry Ave., Chicago.
Notardonato, visitation 3 to 9 p.m. Sunday at Cooney Funeral Home, 625 Busse Hwy., Park Ridge; mass at 11 a.m. Monday, St. Paul of the Cross, 320 S. Washington St., Park Ridge.
Ellis, 9:30 a.m. Monday at Porter Funeral Home, Lenexa, Kan.
Aladjem, 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Arts Club of Chicago, 201 E. Ontario St., Chicago, followed by a reception at Club 44 in the John Hancock Building.
Hand, 3:30 p.m. Friday at the Women’s Athletic Club, 626 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago.
Landa, 3 p.m. Oct. 26, Fourth Presbyterian Church, on North Michigan Avenue at Delaware Place, Chicago.
Services for Albert have been held. Services for Buenz will be announced later.
