A few days each week, Soyfa Athamanah would meet friends at a Thai restaurant downtown and help with the cooking.
She was returning home Tuesday night, carrying back food as she always did, when a black Honda sped through the intersection of Broadway and Winona Street around 10:30 p.m.
The car struck Athamanah while she was in the crosswalk, killing her, and sped off. The driver did not try to slow down before striking Athamanah, according to Sun-Times photographer Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere, who was behind the Honda on Broadway.
“I didn’t see brake lights,” he said. “I saw him swerve and speed up a bit. She then flew into the air.”
Just witnessed someone speed up and intention strike a woman while crossing Broadway and Winona. Called police and EMS but I think this woman is dead.
— Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere (@TylerLaRiviere) July 26, 2023
Athamanah had emigrated from Laos to the United States more than 40 years ago and raised two daughters and a son. She loved to cook and was always feeding family and friends, according to her son, Tony Khounphachanh.
“She’s just a strong, independent woman,” he said. “The nicest woman that you would ever meet. She had a good heart ... it was just stripped away from us. ... Now we have to figure out what to do next.”
Athamanah had lived alone with her puggle, Madison. Helping at the restaurant allowed her to continue to pursue her passion for cooking and taking care of others, he said.
“That’s her ... a 5-foot-2, small Asian lady that you don’t want to mess with, but she’ll always feed you,” Khounphachanh said. “Our house is always smelling good. Our neighbors are always asking about what the smell is ... and with her broken English she’d try to explain the pho or the pad thai.
“She was always putting other people first,” he said.
Athamanah had taken the train from the restaurant and was just minutes from her home when she was struck, her son said.
She was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 11:20 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
“I think she just had confidence that someone or the person that hit her was going to stop, as you should,” Khounphachanh said. “And they hit her and kept on going, and she wasn’t able to go home and walk her dog, and now she’s gone.”
No arrests have been announced in the case. The family hopes the driver surrenders and provides them with some answers. Khounphachanh said he and his sister are prepared to forgive but need the closure.
“We lost our matriarch, we lost the boss of the family,” Khounphachanh said.
Just got done talking with detective, took a while for them to get to the scene, but I’m glad I stayed to chat with them.
— Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere (@TylerLaRiviere) July 26, 2023
