Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
In Section 18 at the Queen of Heaven cemetery there is a statue of another iteration of the Virgin Mary. It stands with the arms extended downward with the palms up toward the flat gravestones that are before and behind. The inscription reads, “Our Lady of the Angels Pray for Us.”
The 42 gravestones have various birthdates in 1947, ’48 and ’49 but they all have one ending date: December 1, 1958. On one of the gravestones viewed on a crisp fall day, there were pictures of the lost daughter, and bright miniature Christmas trees, lovingly arranged 67 years later.
On Dec. 6, 2025, Linda Maffiola-Piatkiewicz — the sister of Joseph Maffiola who perished in the fire — organized a presentation at The Italian Cultural Center in the Casa Italia Community Center. The event was called “A day to gather, reflect, and remember.” After a prayer, the opening minutes of the PBS documentary, “Angels Too Soon,” was screened showing the working-class, immigrant neighborhood before the tragedy. It was a melting pot of first- and second-generation American families that was like so much of Chicago. The center of the community was the parish, where hourly Sunday masses were standing room only, where children played in the streets and families spent time sitting on their stoops to escape the summer heat and commune with neighbors and friends.
The panel included, Matt Plovanich, an OLA survivor, and a retired CPD Detective and Cook County Sheriff Investigator and another OLA survivor and retired CPD Detective, Professor Robert Lombardo, PHD, a Loyola Professor of Criminology. They grew up at opposite ends of the neighborhood so they didn’t connect as OLA survivors until they met at the Chicago Police Academy.
Other panelists were Bill Quinlan, an OLA survivor, Tony Romano, author of a fictionalized version of the OLA fire “Where My Body Ends and the World Begins,”
Rosemary & Margaret Orlando, Casa Italia volunteers who also volunteer at the Our Lady of the Angels Mission, and whose father ran Vesuvio Macaroni Company on Chicago Avenue, and Grace Ann Digiola, a Lead Volunteer at the OLA Mission.
The four-hour presentation was full of stories of survival and loss and the devastating effect of the Our Lady of the Angels fire, in which 92 children and 3 nuns lost their lives. It addressed causes of the fire, why it spread so quickly, many heroic acts, and how the tragedy could have been prevented. It also showed how the City of Chicago Coroner’s Inquest found the city blameless despite a fire inspection that found no faults just previous to the fire, and building codes that weren’t enforced or were “grandfathered” in to not meet the new building codes of 1949.
Linda Maffiola related meeting the renowned photographer, Steve Lasker, who was with the Chicago American and was the first press photographer on the scene. They met 34 years later when she was interviewed by Harry Porterfield for CBS with Lasker filming the interview. He took her out to his car and began crying as he showed her three pictures, including one he took of her brother Joe that fateful day.
Linda says the loss of her older brother was never spoken about in her home until over 35 years later, she asked her father Mario why. He retrieved a suitcase filled with newspaper clippings about the fire that included a picture of her brother. She took that shot, put it under her pillow and cried herself to sleep for a month.
Audience members were equally moved. Patrick L. Carroll, Senior Investigator of the Bomb and Arson Section of the Phoenix Illinois Fire Department said, “Once I found out about the event, I knew as a fire fighter that I had to come. Everyone at our station knows of this tragedy.”
Henry Karkoszka, OLA class of 1960, said, “After the fire my life changed forever. When I was in Vietnam under fire I never feared death.”
Lee Colsant, an archivist at Casa Italia, reflected, “My hope and prayer for all who felt the impact of that horrible tragedy…is that they can forgive and live fully with the grace of God ever present in our lives.”
Summing up at the end, Linda said, “The memories don’t fade. The older you get the more you reflect.
On Dec. 7, the Royal Airs Drum and Bugle Corps led a wreath service at Section 18 of Queen of Heaven cemetery. The group lost three members to the fire: Francis Guzaldo, Valerie Thoma and Roger Ramlow. This is done annually on the first Sunday after Dec, 1.
Thanks to people like Linda, the memories certainly won’t fade.
