Senior is back where she belongs, at long last

Helen Zabielski eased herself into her comfy new armchair and sat back with the self-satisfied look of somebody who has completed a long, hard journey and doesn’t plan to get up again any time soon.

As it was, she’d just made a 30-minute drive crosstown from Sheridan Road to the 4900 block of West Medill as a passenger in a minivan loaded with her belongings. But make no mistake, it was definitely the completion of a difficult journey for Helen .

And now, she was home again, thanks to some newfound friends and her own tough-mindedness.

“Yes, I’m finally back. That was a long time to be away,” Helen said.

One year actually — and when you’re 85, every day counts extra.

You might remember Helen ‘s story.

She’s the retired Chicago public school teacher with no family who fought back last July when city officials tried to have her declared mentally incompetent after she was too slow in completing court-ordered repairs to her eight-unit apartment building across from Blackhawk Park.

Instead of slipping off quietly to some nursing home and having her building sold out from under her, Helen hired a lawyer to defend her right to make her own decisions, and she proved her wisdom by coming up with a plan to stay in her home.

In exchange for a lifetime rent-free lease on an apartment, Helen donated her building to H.O.M.E., a nonprofit organization that specializes in providing housing for low-income seniors.

For the past year, H.O.M.E. has gone about the process of rehabbing Helen ‘s building, and on Friday, she moved back into her old apartment — upgraded with new electric, new windows and appliances, practically new everything.

Even better, other elderly Chicagoans in need of affordable housing have begun filling up the remaining units, the first of many who will benefit from Helen ‘s generosity now and after she’s gone.

Not that Helen is planning on going anywhere anytime soon, except out to the garden she tends in the backyard.

A year away

H.O.M.E., which stands for Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly, is planning a formal ribbon-cutting next week for the project it has dubbed Blackhawk Manor, but I couldn’t wait to bring you the good news.

Helen was too modest to allow the building to be named after her, said Larry McCarthy, the H.O.M.E. volunteer who oversaw the rehab operation and who also has helped look after Helen in the meantime. H.O.M.E. provided an apartment for Helen in one of its other buildings while the work on her building was completed.

During her year away, Helen often took public transportation — five buses each way — to get from her temporary home back to the old neighborhood that she prefers, and where she could visit with her friend Wanda. That practice was curtailed in February when she fell and broke a hip while packing up her old apartment.

While a broken hip has meant the end of independent living for many a senior, Helen bounced back quickly. She’s supposed to use a cane, but she only carries it when riding the bus, where other passengers might jostle her.

It’s a relief, then, that Helen is no longer responsible for upkeep on the building she inherited in 1958 from an aunt and uncle who took her in after her mother died. Helen never married.

Help from some friends

Although I believe officials initially mishandled Helen ‘s case, I have no reason, in retrospect, to question their motives. There were real problems with the building and legitimate cause for concern about Helen ‘s health. She’d gone through a winter without central heat or running water and hadn’t adequately cleaned up after her cats. She’s also something of a pack rat who saves everything, from dried banana peels (for rose food) to empty ice cream cartons (for planting seeds).

But from where I stood, her case exposed a social service system eager to protect seniors from themselves or those who might take advantage of them, but not really prepared to give them any actual help or hear their needs.

Lucky for Helen , she got help from Andrea Raila, whom she’d met when she hired her to challenge her property tax assessment, and from Raila’s husband Mike Rohrbeck. They put Helen in touch with McCarthy and some lawyers and took her into their home while she was getting squared away.

It was McCarthy and Rohrbeck who were there to help Helen move with assistance from yours truly, but that’s different, because the Chicago Sun-Times was paying me.

The move took a little longer than expected because Helen wasn’t quite packed, which meant there wasn’t quite time to pick up her new bed. Helen , though, wasn’t inclined to go back to the Sheridan Road building for another night just to sleep in a bed.

“I can sleep in a chair,” she said. “I’ve slept in chairs many a time.”

Nobody even considered arguing with her. She was home where she belonged.