I am one of two children of Agnes and Henry Ewinger. My mother was born here in Chicago, but her German immigrant parents only just moved here before she was born. In fact, she didn't speak English until she was almost seven years old. My father was born in what is now Croatia (read more about his story here), and eventually moved to Chicago during the mid- 1950's. My parents were married in 1959 and my sister was born in 1960. I was born eleven years later
We grew up on the Northwest Side of Chicago, in a nice, blue-collar residential neighborhood. My father was a stone mason and a bricklayer, and made a comfortable home for all of us. Unfortunately, my father died in August of 1997 due to leukemia. My mother still lives in the same building for over forty years now, and will probably be there the rest of her life. She works part-time for a doll shop on Northwest Hwy called Gigi's Dolls and Sherry's Teddy Bears, in addition to the income from the apartment building.
My sister Rose (family knows her as "Suzi") is a nurse at West Suburban Hospital, and is married to Mike "Leo" Loiacono, who is a general practitioner at the same hospital. They live in River Forest and have three great sons, Joe, Max and Nick.