Some might say that Tuny Mokrauer heroically has fought to overcome, struggled against or stoically bore ALS since 2021.  Perhaps they do not know her well enough.  To others, whatever or whoever it was, it was quickly apparent that Tuny abides by it, accepting what comes with equanimity.  It’s an adventure, she’d say.

Not that there was never wariness or worry.  Her parents, after all, fled Germany in 1935 and spent over 10 years in Beirut before they could settle in New York City in 1946 where she was born June 11, 1953, and Westfield, New Jersey where she spent most of her childhood.  So she knew the world could be scary.  And ALS was just about as scary as anything but it, too, was an adventure.

So Tuny never let much hold her back:  at  Barnard College, living in a narrow tub-in-kitchen Greenwich village apartment and driving a New York City cab in the summer of 1971, coming to Chicago temporarily in 1975 and, as it turned out, ending up marrying a fellow history major turned paralegal in 1977, earning a University of Chicago MBA in 1979 and a CPA in 1981, ensuring our three children became amazing adults, cheerfully shepherding hundreds of often math-phobic Loyola students over 22 years through the basics of computer programming (often taken then to fulfill the math requirement for graduation) and being a quintessential Oak Parker since 1982—volunteering at Whittier School, OPRF and, on the board of PING!, while being a warm, open neighbor in the 600 North block of Ridgeland/Elmwood and beyond.  Meanwhile, she loved literature, opera (from Mozart to Gilbert & Sullivan), theater and movies, the Cubs, Circle Lanes bowling leagues, a softball team and almost any other game, puzzles and, most of all, travel, the quintessential adventure, anywhere (especially Paris) and anytime, as she told us.  She packed a lot into the last 70 years.  And the occasions when she wasn’t smiling were few and far between.

Now we have shared this last adventure as her speech and body faltered while her mind has been as sharp and sure as ever, all of us together simultaneously grieving, already consoling one another and doing our best to keep smiling these two plus years.  All adventures must end but we always remember the better ones, which are usually any one undertaken with Tuny.  And so, as we intend to encounter one another on occasion, here and there for food and conversation and at the ALS Walks on the first Saturday every June, perhaps we can share a moment, smile and remember always that Tuny’s spirit abides and urges us to embark on another adventure.