Posted on 12/20/2007 8:15:06 AM PST by billorites
Stuck in space, Lombard astronaut Daniel Tani is unable to grieve with his family over the death of their mother, who was killed by a train Wednesday.
Tani, aboard the international space station, is weeks away from returning home, but family members said they are attempting to arrange for a weekend service to be beamed to the astronaut by video conference.
Rose Shegino Tani, 90, who endured more than two years in a World War II internment camp for Japanese Americans, was often cited by her son as his inspiration for success. She was killed when she drove around railroad crossing gates in the west suburb and was struck by a freight train, police said.
Daniel Tani, who has been aboard the space station since October and whose scheduled return this week was delayed because of space shuttle equipment problems, was told of his mother's death, said NASA spokeswoman Nicole Cloutier.
Richard Tani, the astronaut's 65-year-old brother, said he "heard about his mother's death pretty quick" from NASA.
"He is obviously pretty sad," Richard Tani said. "He was pretty close to her. We are all close to her. She was loved by everyone."
Daniel's wife, Jane, said she was linked with Daniel, 46, on Wednesday night to talk with him about the accident.
The launch of the space shuttle to fetch Daniel is tentatively set for Jan. 10.
Though Rose Tani was born in the United States, she and her husband, Henry, were forced into internment camps in California and Utah for 2½ years. Henry Tani died when Daniel was 4.
"I cannot imagine how my parents not only survived the discrimination and humiliation of the camps but flourished within those barbed-wire fences,'' Daniel once said. "I am proud to be a product of such strong and resilient people.''
Daniel has said his mother often told stories of the camps, describing "a difficult, uncomfortable life'' but without "bitterness, anger and resentment.'' She also told stories of "joy, laughter and camaraderie.''
"I viewed their forced relocation to the camps as a violation of their basic rights as United States citizens. Yet I get the sense that they felt that they were doing what was asked of them -- to probe their loyalty,'' the son wrote in 2002 for a Japanese American Veterans Association ceremony in which he was honored.
Daniel is the youngest of five children.
In an interview last week with the Chicago Sun-Times, Rose Tani recalled giving her son rockets and model planes for Christmas, feeding his fascination for flight.
Typically, Daniel, his wife and two children spend New Year's in Lombard, she said in the interview.
Lombard police Lt. Jim Glennon said Rose Tani apparently became impatient Wednesday afternoon when she was stopped behind a Glenbard East High School bus at the intersection of Elizabeth Street and the Union Pacific RR tracks.
She honked her horn and drove around the bus and onto the tracks, where she was struck by a westbound freight train headed for Clinton, Iowa. The incident occurred just before 3 p.m., police said.
Longtime neighbor John Brach, 79, said Rose Tani had a heart attack earlier this year.
"She was in the hospital on a Thursday, came out on a Saturday morning and went to a wedding shower that afternoon. She was an amazing lady,'' said Brach.
Brach said she gave neighbors vegetables from her garden.
"She said just a week ago that she had just got off the phone with her son in space. And she said it like he was down in Iowa or someplace else,'' said Brach.
MORE ONLINE
AT SUNTIMES.COMDaniel Tani's thoughts about his mother, photos and videos of him in space, and previous Sun-Times stories about his mission.
Wow! Sad story. You couldn’t make this up.
I can’t believe she drove around the track gates.... :(
...Rose Tani had a heart attack earlier this year."
More than a little Type A it would seem. Very sad.
Doubt it was Type A....more like Alzheimers or dementia....she WAS 90.
Maybe. But school buses always stop at the railroad tracks, train or no train. Maybe she was in a hurry and just 'got stupid' for a few critical moments, and thought it was just the mandatory 'check both ways' stop, as she had seen hundreds of times, with no train in evidence.
The bulk of the bus blocked her view of the lights and the gate, and her iPod was turned up enough so she missed the bell.
At least it was quick...
SHE HAD AN IPOD on???? sorry....I didn’t read enough details I guess.
I guess what I was really trying to say is that none of us are immune to a moment's worth of 'getting stupid', usually it doesn't matter, we space out a stop sign when there is no cross traffic, etc., sometimes it's lethal...
Remarkable that she was still driving at 90. My uncle is still going at 86 and I worry about him but he took some kind of senior driving course and they said he did pretty well.
So sorry to hear about Mr. Tani’s mom. What an awful situation. The former space station astronaut Jim Voss said crews who are going up for an extended stay are told they can request to NOT be informed about the death of a loved one. I suppose it would be hard to keep that secret for months though.
People do dumb things all the time, and sometimes those things turn fatal.
Yesterday on the way home I saw the remains of several vehicles that had been in an accident. From the position of the vehicles and lack of drivers, I guessed that one had been going west on the two lane road, and two more going east bound were damaged on their sides. One badly.
All the drivers (I found out this morning) were transported for minor to severe injuries, one of the people works for our security folks and she saw a guy passing someone coming towards here (on a non-passing zone at high speed). She and the one in front swerved, and they were both side swiped.
In this case, the guy that hit everyone has been known to speed and pass cars illegally all the time. He was one of the people that didn’t get injured.
So, some times “dumb behavior” isn’t dumb to them, but its certainly repeated enough to place them into a “statistics page” somewhere. Our friend has a concussion and minor wounds from her airbag deployment.
Too true!
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