Hello, we are Bruce and Mary Ann Parkins. We have two adult sons, Greg (Sandra) and Alex (Kelly) along with two granddaughters, Isabel and Sofia. Alex, a beautiful soul, was tragically taken from our family almost five years ago due to an auto accident. We miss him every day. 

We were both born and raised in Battle Creek, Michigan. Then due to a job transfer, we moved to New York. We decided to have a house built in New Fairfield, Connecticut.  After a few years, another job transfer brought us to Chicagoland. We have lived in Palos Park for forty-eight years. We immediately began looking for housing with property in the southwest suburbs and of course something affordable. We met with a local Realtor from Blount Realtors and she took us to many houses in the area. When we saw this house we loved the property but not so much the house. We had just finished building a new home in New Fairfield, Connecticut so it was traumatic. It was traumatic because after leaving a beautiful new home we found out this house was built in 1897!  At the time we bought the Palos Park house we were not aware it was a historical home. The house was formerly the home of Mayor Edward M. Tourtelot from 1918-1929. After purchasing the house we spent many years remodeling the interior and exterior (we added a beautiful wrap-around porch which is our little place of heaven).

We love the Palos Park area because of the natural beauty, small-town atmosphere, proximity to Chicago, and the convenience of having a hospital, police and fire department, recreation center, and library near our home.

When we moved here our oldest child was enrolled in kindergarten and the youngest was one year old. Our children were fortunate to have attended outstanding schools (Palos West, Palos South, Sandburg). Greg attended the Illinois Institute of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering. Alex graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor of Arts. I began volunteering when our children were enrolled in elementary school (Room Mother, Hot Dog Lady, Picture Lady, Music Booster), etc. After I retired from St. Francis Hospital in 2009 (31 years) in nursing, I took time to relax! After a few years, I wanted to become involved in my community. In 2011, I was invited to a luncheon with the Palos Park Woman's Club and became a member. I'm still very involved with the Palos Park Woman's Club (14 years) and served in the past as an officer and remain on the board. I'm very fortunate to have met many wonderful women who are like-minded in serving our community. Bruce retired in 1999 (Kraft Foods) and has enjoyed his hobbies of gardening, restoring historic vehicles, attending car shows, entering his red truck, and continual (money pit) house maintenance.

Our favorite family tradition is always celebrating Thanksgiving together. We just celebrated our fifty-seventh wedding anniversary and it will be a cherished memory.