CHICAGO BUS CRASH Ex-Valley resident among 8 killed

The former resident enjoyed scuba diving and taking underwater photos.
STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
CHICAGO -- One was a sociologist from Uruguay who spoke four languages. Another was a soft-spoken Peace Corps volunteer born in Finland. A third was an Ecuador native who was an expert on Gertrude Stein.
A day after a chain-reaction crash killed eight members of a cultural group on a tour bus, a picture emerged of the worldly, adventurous women who died.
Among them was a former Boardman resident, Peg Albert, 75, of Glenview, Ill.
"All of these women just were so giving and caring, and wanting to help each other," said D. Clancy, a member of the International Women Associates. "You just feel like somebody punched you in the stomach, or that it just can't really be true."
What happened
The victims, all members of the women's group, were returning to Chicago from a Japanese flower show in Rockford when a tractor-trailer slammed into their tour bus on Interstate 90 about 50 miles west of Chicago. The bus was pushed through the trailer of a second truck.
In addition to the eight killed, 15 people were taken to hospitals, at least nine of whom remained hospitalized Thursday, one in critical condition.
"It seems like a surreal nightmare to us," said Doe Thornburg, founder of the women's group. "It's really a terrible heartache for so many of us."
Thornburg started the Chicago-based group 25 years ago for women who had lived or were born abroad. The group has about 450 members from 60 countries.
"We're multifaceted people. We're very caring people. We're, all of us, very interested in being understood and trying to offer our help to other people," Thornburg said.
Local ties
Albert was a docent on some of the group's outings, said Marion Henderson of Youngstown, Albert's sister.
Albert, who left the area about 50 years ago, was adventurous, her sister said.
"It's such a loss, if you knew her," Henderson said.
Albert planned on going into the mountains surrounding Cancun, Mexico, on a trip the family was planning for the end of the month, Henderson said. The family still will take the trip because she would have wanted that, Henderson said Friday.
Albert also took up scuba diving later in life. She donned an air tank five or six years ago and enjoyed taking underwater photos while diving around Tulum, Mexico, her sister said.
Additionally, she delivered meals weekly to house-bound Glenview residents, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Thornburg said those killed besides Albert were Chicago residents Sonia Aladjem, 74; Olga Buenz, 66; Cecilia Ellis, 54; Marita Landa, 66; Jane Hand, 76; Jeanet Notardonato, 53; and Irma Oppenheimer, 64.
Aladjem, originally from Uruguay, was a sociologist and former president of the group. She spoke four languages and was the former director general of the Alliance Fran & ccedil;aise de Chicago, Thornburg said.
"She had universal interests. She knew a great deal about French literature, French painting, French art," Thornburg said.