Train passengers cross the tracks after an outbound Metra Milwaukee District West train moves past the Itasca station March 15, 2023, in Chicago.
We moved across the street from the Metra train station in 2019 so that my husband could sprint haphazardly across the street just as the train was rolling in and still make it to work on time. We didn’t fully anticipate that every antique leaded window and old-forest wooden crossbeam in our 100-year-old house would shake and rattle with each passing train. We didn’t fully anticipate that my husband would rarely be able to sleep past the 5 a.m. train coming into the station.
Since 2019, there have been at least two deaths at our train station, with the latest incident this past week. The long wailing horn of a train running over a pedestrian cannot be unheard. The aftermath that follows cannot be unseen. When the ambulance crawls by at a slow speed and does not stop and the biohazard cleaning specialist shows up and “sanitizes” the tracks in the spirit of trauma remediation, nothing else needs to be said.
On April 24, the neighbors standing by on the corner already knew the irrevocable loss that had occurred. We discussed the heaviness we felt for the train conductor, the bystanders, the cleanup crews and those who just lost a dear loved one. Coming from a place of empathy, it puts the beauty and wonder of our own immediate lives into perspective, laced with bittersweetness as we try to figure out how we are supposed to turn our attention back to our workdays.