Page 5 - October 2021

CHICAGO LODGE 7
Official Magazine
President’s Report
FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE CHICAGO LODGE #7
EXECUTIVE BOARD
JOHN CATANZARA JR.
President
Michael Mette
First Vice President
Daniel D. Gorman
Second Vice President
Fernando Flores
Third Vice President
Rob Noceda
Recording Secretary
Jim Jakstavich
Financial Secretary
Dennis McGuire
Treasurer
Dean Angelo Sr.
Immediate Past President
Sergeants-at-Arms
Nenad Markovich Frank Quinn III Daniel Sheehan
Trustees
Harold Brown John Capparelli Pablo Claudio Frank J. DiMaria David DiSanti Mark P. Donahue Patrick Duckhorn Tim Fitzpatrick Dan Goetz Ken Hauser Tom Lonergan Brock Merck Steve Olsen Monica Ortiz Dan Quaid Ron Shogren Daniel G. Trevino
Field Representative
Andrew Cantore
That’s the spirit
Spend a few moments consuming the image of Carlos Yanez Jr. on the cover of this issue and feel the power of the human spirit, because, to me, that’s what really en- capsulates Junior’s persona. I had a chance to visit with him a few weeks ago, and I’ve rarely, if ever, had this kind of life-changing moment witnessing such relentless positive mental attitude.
He still has his signature cop humor about him. He’s just a jovial guy. Inspirational. Happy. I don’t doubt he has his dark, sad moments. Nobody would be able to expect otherwise. I went to present Carlos a Lodge 7 Award of Valor. When we do this, Finan- cial Secretary Jim Jakstavich usually writes something that we read when honoring the award winner.
But I told Jimmy I was going to ad-lib, because I knew it was going to be played on the Jumbotron before the CPD-CFD baseball game at Guaranteed Rate Field. I also knew that we would be presenting valor awards to Ella French’s mom, Elizabeth, and Joshua Blas before the game, and I even told Elizabeth just before the game that I was really conscious of the hero worship for Carlos and Josh, almost as if Ella didn’t deserve it because she didn’t make it, and we all know that’s not true. It was really a hard line to straddle, celebrating their response and fight and still
honoring Ella’s sacrifice that she gave her life for another, because she really did.
Turned out to be one of the more difficult situations I’ve ever been in. Trying to figure out how to
word the award for Josh and Ella was hard enough. But when I went to see Carlos...
It was just me and Brenda, Junior’s wife, in the room with him. He had just been through therapy all day, and I really didn’t expect much energy out of him. I was on a timeline, not that it mattered, but I was supposed to be back at the Lodge within 45 minutes for the general membership meeting. I went into his room after he had changed into his CPD Finest baseball jersey, and we just started talking. My 20-minute conversation turned into a 90-minute conversation. Rob Noceda was waiting outside to take me back, and he’s blowing up my phone. I didn’t even look at my phone, because I wasn’t going anywhere. Carlos wanted to talk, and I wasn’t going to make him stop. It was awesome just watching him talk and light up with energy and excitement and gratitude and love. Twice he said,
“Come here. I want to give you a hug.”
He was able to lift his left arm. He doesn’t really have a very good grip with his left hand yet, but he
can raise his left arm. He can move his left leg. He’s made such incredible, fast progress to this point. Now, of course you plateau, but this guy is so strong that he will keep fighting to get the little progress to build up over time. The doctors didn’t think he was going to get as far as he is now. They were like, “I can’t explain this.” They never thought he was going to be able to use his left arm. But he can pick it up. And he hugged me with it.
I could have stayed there another two hours. It’s one of those conversations that will stay in my head forever. I got so lost in the moment. It was such an amazing experience to see a guy who is glad to be alive, wants to fight for his family, friends, co-workers and strangers even, just keep fighting for them. The human spirit is an amazing thing.
I’m blessed that I was a part of that event. We just want more of this inspirational, happy story. So we’re going to focus on how far Junior has come in six weeks.
We hear Carlos is slated to get out of inpatient care at the end of October. He will still be doing outpatient therapy at the same place for six hours a day, so he will have to live close by. Between then and Christmas, we are planning another benefit for Junior with the specific goal of helping his family get a house or rehab a house they can live in.
I don’t trust the City to stand by him, so we will have to do it. Just like we are doing for Elizabeth and Josh. I can’t believe how much Elizabeth is lifting us up the same way Junior has with his prog- ress. I hope you saw her at the baseball game, all smiles. She, Josh and Carlos Sr. each threw out first pitches for that game. Guess who had the best one? I think Elizabeth may be stronger than all of us.
And I can tell you from that night that Josh is good, too. He took some time away to talk and get away from stuff. He has a long mental road ahead. Nobody’s kidding anybody about that. But we’ll get him through it. His immediate plan is to get back on the job, and I don’t necessarily see that changing. It’s just one day at a time for him right now, too.
I know we are supposed to take care of Elizabeth, Carlos and Josh. And we are. But what they are doing for us now with their human spirit, well, there aren’t enough words to explain how uplifting this has been.
JOHN CATANZARA JR.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT CONTINUES ON PAGE 6
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