Donna Vickroy – Page 10

Life throws us difficult, seemingly impossible challenges, but once you get through them, you will know for the rest of your life that you can do hard things. (Getty Images)

Donna Vickroy: When everything goes to rot, remember you can do hard things

November 8, 2024 at 9:25 a.m.

Life throws us difficult, seemingly impossible challenges, but it also provides others who are ready to help us get through it. And once you do, you will carry in your...

Luis Garcia, of Boynton Beach, is confronted in 2021 by Trump supporters as he holds a Biden Harris sign in West Palm Beach. (South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Donna Vickroy: Worried, scared, despondent about the upcoming election? Let’s hope our best selves emerge

November 1, 2024 at 8:34 a.m.

An election should pique your interest, raise concerns, propose opportunity, inspire a hopeful “what-if” kind of thinking. It shouldn’t make you feel like a cat on a hot tin roof.

At 72, Orland Park native Jim Campbell embarked on a trek across America to reconnect with people from his past and to find forgiveness and inner peace. (Supplied photo)

Donna Vickroy: On a trek across ‘divided’ America, suburban retiree finds inner peace and unconditional acceptance

October 25, 2024 at 11:35 a.m.

A 22-day, 5,700-mile odyssey across America leaves suburban man humbled, inspired and convinced we, as a people, are not as divided as we think we are.

Columnist Donna Vickroy and her husband adopted Josie in 2016, and despite the fact that the pooch has "white sox," it didn't stop the Chicago Cubs from winning the World Series that year -- a sure sign that the negative image some have of black dogs is dead wrong, she says. (Donna Vickroy/Naperville Sun)

Donna Vickroy: Black dogs have an image problem, and it’s time to get over it

October 18, 2024 at 11:06 a.m.

I’m here, less than two weeks before Halloween, to dispel the myth that black dogs are scarier, meaner or in any way less lovable than their white, brown, gray, spotted...

The Red Cross distributes supplies to people in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy Oct. 25, 2012 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (AFP/Getty Images)

Donna Vickroy: This country is at its greatest when we rise to the occasion in times of catastrophe

October 11, 2024 at 12:08 p.m.

So many catastrophes have brought families, communities and sometimes the world to its knees. But they also brought out the best in Americans, as we have seen time and time...

Valparaiso (Indiana) High School students hoist signs and react to horns from passing cars during a walk-out protest against gun violence on Wednesday, April 5, 2023. (Kyle Telechan/Post-Tribune)

Donna Vickroy: Without tougher gun control laws, we — and our children — get to live in fear of the next mass shooting

October 4, 2024 at 2:50 p.m.

Until we adopt gun laws that protect people not weapons, we can expect our children -- and ourselves -- to live in fear of the next mass shooting.

Donna Vickroy's memory garden, which contains elements in honor of her deceased mother, father and sister, is a place to seek solace when grief strikes unexpectedly as much as one to sit and remember. (Donna Vickroy/Naperville Sun)

Donna Vickroy: My memory garden — where life and loss sit together in peace

September 27, 2024 at 12:43 p.m.

Donna Vickroy's memory garden, which contains elements in honor of her deceased mother, father and sister, is a place to seek solace when grief strikes unexpectedly as much as a...

Students and faculty gather Sept. 8, 2024, on the field at Apalachee High School to mourn and celebrate the lives of Sept. 4 school shooting victims at the Winder, Georgia, school. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)

Donna Vickroy: Are school safety threats the new normal? Onus is on kids — and parents — to take action

September 20, 2024 at 11:53 a.m.

The community is the hero in Tinley Park, Elgin, Joliet and many other Chicago-area towns, where alert and responsive kids and adults learned of threats to their schools and quickly...

Why are these tomato plants failing to thrive? A quick test reveals the soul is alkaline, which is optimal for tomatoes. The answer could be a mineral deficiency, local horticulture experts say. (Donna Vickroy/ for Naperville-Sun)

Donna Vickroy: What’s wrong with my tomato plants?

September 15, 2024 at 7:26 a.m.

Yes, I know I can head to the farmers market and pick up tomatoes for cheap. I know I don’t have to spend my summer mornings watering, weeding and pep...

The Doobie Brothers were part of a double-bill with Steve Winwood Aug. 25 at the Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre in Tinley Park. (Donna Vickroy/Naperville Sun)

Donna Vickroy: If only they could have ‘rock(ed) me, rock(ed) me’ a little while longer

September 6, 2024 at 11:37 a.m.

The power of live music and the feeling it gives us transcends age and can fill you with memories and emotions you first felt years ago, Donna Vickroy says.

All Stories