After the accident on that May evening in downtown Chicago, a young woman came to the corner with flowers. In the fog of grief, she found comfort in this small gesture — the laying of dogwood and hydrangea blooms at the busy corner where her friend had died.
She arranged the flowers against the pole of a traffic signal. Then she wrapped some wire around until the flowers were secure. When she was done, she tied a small card, among the flowers, that was printed with the name of her friend, Justyna Palka.
Palka was 26 years old, slim and beautiful, with blue eyes, a stylish bob haircut and, on her left middle finger, a silver ring shaped like a rose. She was on her way home from work as an art director at an advertising firm a year ago today when she crossed the intersection at Illinois Street and Columbus Drive and was struck and killed by a tour bus.
Soon after the accident, Olivia Roszkowska, 31, began bringing the flowers. She had known Palka for two years and thought of her as a sister.
“I could not stand people passing by and not knowing what happened there,” Roszkowska said. “I just didn’t want this intersection to be so empty. I didn’t want this intersection to be like nothing happened there.”
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Roszkowska soon took down the old blossoms and replaced them with new ones. She used artificial flowers so they would stand up to the weather. They would never wilt, she knew. They would never die.
Summer turned to fall, and fall turned to winter. But even as snow piled up on the sidewalks, the flowers bloomed on the street corner. Their bright silk petals stood out against the darkness of winter.
In December, there were sprigs of pine and holly berries. In January, an arrangement of white and pink orchids. In February, red gladiolus.
Other friends of Justyna’s came too. At Christmas, someone brought a Santa figurine. At Easter, there was a small cross.
But mostly, people brought flowers, because Palka had loved flowers. “Tulips were one of Justyna’s favorites,” remembered Roszkowska.
Palka lived in the 400 block
of North McClurg Court in Streeterville, just a block from where she was killed. She was born in Krakow, Poland, and grew up in Dortmund, Germany.
Creativity infused her life, family members said.
As a child she rejected Barbie dolls, in part, because “she was too busy with painting and drawing,” said her mother, Malgorzata Palka. By the time she was 7, she drew pictures that were so carefully composed that teachers “couldn’t believe that she could make such beautiful things.”
The love of art eventually led Palka to Chicago, where, in January 2006, she enrolled at the School of the Art Institute.
Smart and intuitive and determined to find her place in the creative world, she excelled in school, teachers remembered. “She was a young lady who was not easily intimidated or put off in terms of challenges,” said Georgia Bockos, an adjunct professor who became a mentor to Palka. “She was a lovely young woman, energetic, creative, giving and open.”
“She was a little bit like a younger sister to me. It’s not easy to talk about, even a year later,” Bockos said.
In school, and later when she
joined the advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather, Palka strove for perfection.
Which is why, after she died, friends found that they lingered at the flower shop, trying to pick just the right bloom.
At first, people left fresh flowers on the corner. One relative bought a heart-shaped bouquet.
But those fresh flowers wilted and were swept away, leaving the intersection to look like any other, with its zooming traffic and rush of pedestrians.
That didn’t sit right with Roszkowska, who began looking at artificial flowers in craft shops. “I spent a lot of time there. I wanted to make sure the flowers were thoughtful.”
She spoke with Palka’s mother, to ask if it would be OK to put a bouquet at the site.
And soon after she began leaving the arrangements, other friends came to tuck a fresh flower among the artificial blooms.
Browsing for flowers left Elyse Simpson with a sense of calm.
“There’s something therapeutic about picking out the flowers. I almost feel like I’m there with her,” said Simpson, 26. “I think about how thoughtful she was. How every detail had to be perfect.”
Details mattered to Palka.
An artist at heart and a graphic designer by trade, Palka preferred X-Acto knives to scissors. Everywhere she went, she carried dental floss and a lint roller. For relatives’ birthdays, she sent beautiful handmade cards.
“Love is in the details,” was a favorite saying.
“She was always perfectly put together. She always wore makeup; her hair was always done,” remembered Ilona Pawlak, 28, a classmate.
But Palka knew she often drove herself too hard. She arrived to work early, stayed late and, when she left, often brought work home. “It didn’t matter if it was a small project or a large one, she couldn’t do anything halfway,” said Karen Smith, her supervisor at Ogilvy & Mather.
In the months before she died, Palka had begun to seek more balance. She and a friend resolved to meet for a semimonthly brunch, where they would drink mimosas and eat decadent food. Palka said it would be a breakfast to “celebrate life.”
After five years in Chicago, she had begun to consider moving back to Germany. She desperately missed her family there. But then she met a man and was thinking more about the future.
“Everything was aligning for her,” said Simpson.
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On May 3, 2011, it was close to 6:50 p.m. when Palka walked across the intersection at Columbus and Illinois, just as a tour bus began making its turn. She was crossing on a green light and had the right of way when she was hit, according to witnesses.
The driver of the bus, David Soto, 48, later tested positive for cocaine, authorities said, and was indicted on two counts of aggravated DUI and one count of reckless homicide. In the past, he served time for aggravated criminal sexual assault, attempted rape and aggravated battery. At the time of the accident, he was under investigation for other alleged sex crimes, leading to more charges.
Palka’s family filed a civil suit against Soto, the bus company that employed him and the owner of the bus, alleging negligence.
Soto is being held without bail at the Cook County Jail. A trial date has not been set in either case.
A year after the accident,
friends take comfort in the fact that now, as in every May, the city’s boulevards are bursting with tulips — Palka’s favorite flower. “I saw the tulips today while I was driving,” said Yuridia Trujillo, 30. “Every time I see them, I think of her.”
Over the last year, there have been many tributes. Portraits have been drawn; a song was written. Colleagues at Ogilvy & Mather put together a book of Palka’s work and established a scholarship in her name.
On Thursday, a bronze statue will be placed at Palka’s grave in Germany.
Roszkowska flew to Germany to attend the memorial.
But before she left, she paid a visit to the intersection of Illinois and Columbus.
It was 9 p.m by the time she arrived with an armful of silk orchids and roses.
Cars zoomed past as she worked to attach the flowers to the street pole. Sometimes people will stop and talk, but on this night, she was alone.
“Just that moment of putting the flowers on the corner, it has a very deep meaning for me,” she said. “I think about what happened and how much I miss her as a friend.”
A Mass in memory of Palka will be celebrated at 7 a.m. Thursday at Holy Name Cathedral, and friends will gather at Illinois Street and Columbus Drive at 7 p.m, the approximate time that a bus turning into the intersection last year struck and killed Palka.