Chapter 7: Lady Phoenix

In 1984, with membership in the No More Bars group only growing, Judy takes a rare night off from battling the powers that be.

Judy, Fred, and daughter Gina hop in the car and drive I-55 to the lakefront.

They park at the harbor and walk to the pier.

Judy's made plans to meet up with some fellow lawyers for a leisurely night cruise on Lake Michigan.

Only a 15 minute drive, but seemingly a million miles away from her worries and wild lions.

After a relaxing night out on the water, Fred Petrucci gets behind the wheel to drive the family home.

While he was driving home, he kept having visual problems.

And he was nauseated and didn't feel well, which was unlike him.

He was 44 or 45 and healthy.

We figured maybe he's seasick.

We'd just gotten off the boat.

Didn't think anything of it.

They went to bed.

He had been complaining to her in the morning about this terrible indigestion.

So she went to the kitchen to get some milk or whatever.

And from the kitchen, she said she could hear what she then recognized to be a death rattle.

Judy called her husband had a heart attack at home.

I was the first one there.

Pulled him off the bed.

Started CPR.

I could not bring him back.

Took him to the hospital.

Jim Couch took me to McNeil and my mom was there and that's when I found out that my dad had passed.

It affected me terribly when my dad passed.

I was a first year nursing student at the time and I carried the guilt that I should have recognized the symptoms of a heart attack.

In 1984, with membership in the No More Bars group only growing, Judy takes a rare night off from battling the powers that be.

Judy, Fred, and daughter Gina hop in the car and drive I-55 to the lakefront.

They park at the harbor and walk to the pier.

Judy's made plans to meet up with some fellow lawyers for a leisurely night cruise on Lake Michigan.

Only a 15 minute drive, but seemingly a million miles away from her worries and wild lions.

After a relaxing night out on the water, Fred Petrucci gets behind the wheel to drive the family home.

While he was driving home, he kept having visual problems.

And he was nauseated and didn't feel well, which was unlike him.

He was 44 or 45 and healthy.

We figured maybe he's seasick.

We'd just gotten off the boat.

Didn't think anything of it.

They went to bed.

He had been complaining to her in the morning about this terrible indigestion.

So she went to the kitchen to get some milk or whatever.

And from the kitchen, she said she could hear what she then recognized to be a death rattle.

Judy called her husband had a heart attack at home.

I was the first one there.

Pulled him off the bed.

Started CPR.

I could not bring him back.

Took him to the hospital.

Jim Couch took me to McNeil and my mom was there and that's when I found out that my dad had passed.

It affected me terribly when my dad passed.

I was a first year nursing student at the time and I carried the guilt that I should have recognized the symptoms of a heart attack.