Some weddings are special because of where they take place, others because of who is there.
For Samantha Albright and Josh Campbell, their intimate ceremony Saturday in Aurora was memorable because of two people who could not be present. The couple exchanged vows in Chet and Judy Albright Park on Iowa Avenue, which was named in honor of Samantha’s grandparents, whose legacy still looms large over their family and the community they loved.
When the couple started talking about where to get married, “We had a few places in mind,” Samantha said. But when they “started thinking about who would be there and who would be absent,” the choice became apparent – and ever so fitting.
Chet Albright, who died in 2017, grew up at Mooseheart, where he met fellow resident Judy, his wife of 56 years – and went on to become the first 6th Ward alderman on Aurora’s City Council.
His eight years in this role was pivotal for the city, said current Ald. Mike Saville, who took over the position after Chet resigned in 1987 to work at Mooseheart. On the Aurora City Council, Albright helped the city bridge to a new form of government. And as chair of the Plan Commission who helped form the first economic development office, “he guided the city” in the buildout of the far East Side, filling in what was, at that time, “just a two-lane road” connecting to Route 59 after Fox Valley Mall was built in 1974.
Chet, the former owner of Northgate Barber Shop, was also active in Boys Baseball of Aurora, as well as the Batavia Moose and Aurora Rotary clubs, while his wife worked with special needs children at Hope Wall School in Aurora. Both were known for their love of children and family, said Saville, as well as their remarkable ability to make everyone feel important.
While “Grandma was more quiet and reserved,” noted Samantha, her grandpa was an extrovert who knew people by face and name, “no matter where we went … and that’s not easy to do.”
The 26-year-old bride also remembers her grandparents as her biggest fans, never missing any of her school or sporting events, even if it meant traveling for hours to watch softball games. Among her favorite memories, however, was “sitting and talking” with her grandfather in the family’s four-seasons room, where the “gifted storyteller” would often “practice with me” some of his many public speeches.
“I heard story after story,” she told me, most of which have become precious family memories, even for the new groom who did not have a chance to meet Chet or Judy, who died a few years after her husband.
Samantha and Josh Campbell’s wedding ceremony, attended by about 16 close family members, was filled with special moments, particularly when the couple exchanged rings.
After Chet died unexpectedly of a massive heart attack following a girls basketball game at his beloved Mooseheart, Judy gave her granddaughter the wedding bands she and her husband had worn, a gift that was tucked away in a safe all these years until she and Josh became engaged.
Saville was obviously delighted to find out the young couple wanted to have their ceremony in the park he helped create and name in honor of a couple who devoted so much of their lives to the community.
Samantha still remembers car rides through the city, with her grandfather pointing out all the changes that had taken place in his and other wards, well aware of the ups and downs of his hometown, but “always focusing on the positive … always speaking about Aurora with such pride.”
And on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in a park dedicated in 2023 to the lives he and Judy lived so well, that pride came full circle.
In a card given to her granddaughter, Judy encouraged her to “enrich the lives of others as you have enriched mine.” The first half of that sweet request is tattooed on Samantha’s left forearm, prominently visible in a sleeve of flowers as she and Josh pledged their commitment to one another.
Her grandparents, she insisted, were not only “the foundation of me as a person but also the foundation” of a very special day.
dcrosby@tribpub.com
