[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8919-8920]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      BEST WISHES TO SARA FROELICH

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, back in the year 2000, my wife Loretta 
and I went to the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles, and we ran into 
a young college coed from Illinois. She was a student at Wesleyan 
University in Bloomington, IL--originally from the Twin Cities of 
Minnesota. At that time, her name was Sara Nelson.
  Sara Nelson had a class assignment to cover the convention for a 
weekly newspaper in Illinois. She was out there sleeping on the floor 
of somebody's apartment and wandering around trying to write a story 
for a weekly newspaper. She was a bright-smiling young woman, and 
Loretta and I liked her instantly.

[[Page 8920]]

  As fate would have it, we ended up on the same plane flying back to 
Chicago when the convention had ended. We landed at Midway late, and as 
Loretta and I were leaving the baggage section, we saw Sara Nelson 
sitting on her bag by the curb. We said: Sara, where are you going?
  She said: I missed my bus down to Bloomington--which is a little over 
100 miles away--and I have to wait for one that will come later 
tonight.
  I said: You're in luck because Loretta and I are driving down there. 
Get in the car.
  She hopped in the car with us, and we drove down to Bloomington.
  During the course of the trip, we got to know her and liked her even 
more. She told us how much she loved politics and government and that 
she was soon going to graduate from Illinois Wesleyan University.
  So I said: Why don't you call me sometime. Maybe you can be an intern 
in my office.
  She agreed. She was not only an intern, she was one of the best. As 
soon as she graduated, we hired her. A year later, she was promoted to 
handle immigration and citizenship casework, and she did a great job. 
Then there was an opportunity for her to work as my deputy director for 
the entire downstate portion of Illinois. This was in 2006.
  So Sara Nelson took off and became my representative, going all over 
the State and speaking for me at meetings and representing me and 
working on projects as important as the new courthouse in Rockford, IL, 
and the new bridge across the Mississippi River connecting Granite City 
with downtown St. Louis. There was no project too daunting for her. She 
took them on.
  In the meantime, to nobody's surprise, she found the person she 
wanted to marry, John Froelich. She and John got married several years 
ago, and we went to the wedding--a beautiful event. Her family came 
down from Minnesota, and the two of them were perfect. John was in 
medical school studying to be an orthopedic surgeon. Lo and behold, 
shortly, about a year or so after that, along comes baby Naomi. I 
cannot tell you how much she loves that baby. She replaced politics, 
soccer, and the World Cup in her list of most important things. I see 
Sara out in the park on weekends pushing the stroller, sometimes 
running behind it with little Naomi giggling along the way.
  There is some good news for Minnesotans and bad news for Illinois as 
this story comes to an end. John Froelich is a medical student and will 
start his fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester in a few weeks, so 
Sara and Naomi and John are moving on. I will miss her. She has been a 
terrific asset on my staff and a terrific person. She is a great mom 
and has been a great ally in the course of the years she has worked for 
me.
  Loretta and I wish Sara and John and Naomi the very best and thank 
them for the wonderful years of service they have given to me and the 
State of Illinois.

                          ____________________