To honor their family matriarch’s 86th birthday, and for many years after, Providenza Imburgia’s relatives displayed messages on a bench at the corner of Jackson Boulevard and Desplaines Avenue. As thousands of people passed the landmark over the years, with messages like “Happy Birthday,” “Super 88, Mille di questi giorni, Providenza,” and “89 and Doing Fine,” it became a salute to a legendary mother in Forest Park. The tributes lasted for a decade starting in 1982 and changing every year as a public birthday celebration for Providenza.
