They would be humbled

Family. Food. Faith.

This is how Lori Chignoli Cora of Shorewood, eighth of nine siblings, summed up her parents’ values. Driven by a Catholic faith, unspoken but clearly expressed in their behavior, Eva and Bob Chignoli lived for family and tied those bonds around the dinner table.

On March 8, Joliet Catholic Academy will present the Chignoli family with the JCA Recognition Award at its 29th Jubilate in honor of the family’s late patriarch and matriarch, Eva and Bob Chignoli.

Chris Voss, director of special events for the school, said through the years, the Chignoli family has dedicated many volunteer hours to the school.

In a span of 30 years and despite the challenges of raising a large family on a single income, Eva and Bob sent all nine children to St. John the Baptist School in Joliet, where Eva had attended school.

Eight of the nine young Chignolis also attended area Catholic high schools, Cora said, despite the fact that they lived within a couple blocks of Joliet Central High School, that Eva never drove a car and that Bob worked long hours. Somehow, Cora said, they made it work.

“I remember taking my mom to the hospital to deliver my brother [Bill Chignoli of Joliet] that’s 20 years younger than me,” said Lou Chignoli of Shorewood.

Cora echoed the sentiments of Chignoli and her sister, Carol McCabe of Joliet (siblings two and one), when she said that her parents, if they were still alive, would be surprised and humbled at the honor.

“They’d not understand it at all,” Lori said. “To be honest, we didn’t talk about our faith or about commitment or community. It was all done through their actions. I can’t remember my parents ever yelling. We lived simply and just went from day to day.”

In the family’s earlier years, McCabe said, Bob was a funeral director; Chignoli Funeral Home was the lower level of the family home on Union Street. Later, Bob worked long hours as a car salesman at Vidmar Buick in Joliet. At 58, he began Chignoli Auto Sales in Joliet, where nine family members still work today, 40 years later.

“We used to say that he changed occupations as the family grew,” McCabe said. “He had that winning personality, very likeable and good-hearted. He’d help anyone if he could.”

Eva, a former farm girl, always classy and petite, despite the nine children, McCabe said, was patient, gracious, content to “do without” and ascetic, one that abstained from full meals during Lent, and served tuna casserole and grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup on Lenten Fridays to her family.

“My mom always abided by all the rules,” McCabe said.

A family of 11 generates plenty of housework and Eva accomplished it with wringer washers, hanging laundry on clotheslines and keeping a coal furnace stoked, Cora said. Eva sat twice each day, for the 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. news. Yet Eva still found time to volunteer at both the former Joliet Catholic Academy and former Joliet Catholic High School.

Cora recalled how the kids sat around the dining room table at night with their homework and babysitting to pay for extras. At Christmastime, McCabe said, a “big fresh tree” graced the large bay window.

“My dad would be so excited,” McCabe said, “he would get us all up at three in the morning to open gifts.”

After Sunday Mass at St. Anthony Parish in Joliet (Bob’s church), Bob would spend the rest of the day preparing large Italian meals: stewed chicken, polenta, risotto, Cora said.

Intended to give Eva a break from cooking (“My mom knew how to make nine different meals from hamburger,” Chignoli said) those dinners became all-day affairs that the entire family was expected to attend – or at least telephone – once they were grown and had their own children.

“He’d even invite some of the Carmelite priests to have dinner with us,” Chignoli said. “That’s what we did on Sundays, eat and spend time with each other.”

Vacations, Chignoli said, were almost non-existent, unless they packed everyone up in the vehicle for a very occasional weekend in a Wisconsin cabin. Bob and Eva never took a trip as a couple. Any money that flowed through the household went to provide for the children.

“Because of their upbringing,” Chignoli said, “we all managed to stay out of trouble. None of us ever had problems in school. They taught us to do things the right way.”