2 sisters, a bully and the apology 60 years in the making that set them free
TINLEY PARK, Ill. - On a recent Wednesday afternoon, some 60 years after they graduated from grammar school, the Rys sisters sat down and had a meal with a classmate for the first time.
Over soup and coffee at a Tinley Park Panera, Kathleen Rys, 72, and her sister Lorraine O'Kelly, 70, made amends with one of their childhood tormentors, Bruce Smit, 71.
The event, which involved flowers, hugs and a tearful apology, came more than half a century after the hurt began.
Lorraine and Kathleen Rys were in third and fourth grade, respectively, when their family moved from Chicago to Monee, in the 1950s. As new kids at Monee Elementary School, they soon found themselves on the outs.
"I don't know how it all started, but by the time I was in sixth or seventh grade, everyone was avoiding the Rys sisters," said Smit, a Frankfort, podiatrist whose wife, Tammy, organized the breakfast forgiveness meeting.
As the group
