Like many bidders at the Elephant Under the Big Top Auction, Kelly Duffy had hopes of taking home one or more of the 34 whimsically decorated pachyderm statues that all summer long had graced the sidewalks of the downtown and West End business districts in La Grange.
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Having just moved with her husband, Dan, and their five children from Aurora into their new home in Western Springs, still living out of boxes, attending the Sept. 7 auction was Kelly's first grand outing in her new community.
While there were a few elephants on which she planned to bid—she would eventually take home three—Poppy was her clear favorite.
Kelly had first encountered Poppy while strolling with her some of her children and friends through downtown La Grange. She found the fiberglass statue on the corner of Calendar and Harris Aves, where it had spent the summer bolted to the sidewalk outside the entrance to The Papery, one of its four sponsoring businesses.
Poppy's skin was standard, elephantine gray but served as a canvas for a field's worth of namesake flowers in a rainbow of colors. To Kelly, Poppy's blossoms were more than just a pretty visage. In her eyes, they served as a visual metaphor for a remarkable blooming she had witnessed in the life of her son, Jack.
Eleven years old and the second eldest of the five Duffy siblings, Jack is severely autistic. Able to function but requiring near constant attention, says Kelly, Jack last year was floundering at the public school he attended in Naperville, receiving little special instruction. He was basically "warehoused," she says, in a classroom with other disabled students, some of whom were in a virtually vegetative state.
In March, however, Jack had been accepted to the School of Autism at the Helping Hand Rehabilitation Center in Countryside, which offers a year-round, specialized program of individual attention with the goal of helping each child become as independent as possible.
Getting accepted to the school was "a one in a million shot," says Kelly. Well, not exactly, but Jack was just one of six students selected from among 150 applicants.
The resulting transformation she has seen in Jack is nothing less than a miracle, she says.
"Six months ago, Jack couldn't count to three," Kelly says. "Now he can count to twelve and recognize numbers."
During a recent meal at a local restaurant, Jack joyfully called out numbers from the menu, she says. Driving through town, he pointed excitedly to a passing truck, noting its red color.
So grateful was Kelly Duffy for what the school and its staff had given her son, she wanted to give something in return. Poppy seemed like the perfect gift.
"What made me fall in love with Poppy is that it is a blooming thing," says Kelly, "and Jack is constantly blooming now."
When Poppy was put on the auction block that evening, Kelly knew that taking the statue home likely would require a generously competitive bid. Sixteen of the 34 elephants already had been sold, with the proceeds to be split among three local charities. While most of the statues auctioned up to that point had fetched winning bids of several hundred dollars, four had exceeded $1,000. One of them, Horton, which sported a collage of Dr. Seuss characters, had garnered a top bid of $2,400, eliciting oohs and ahhs from the crowd of 300 assembled tightly under the big white auction tent, which had been erected smack in the middle of Burlington Ave, where Stone Ave meets the rail station bearing its name.
Kelly was ready to bid that and more, if necessary. But unbeknownst to her, someone else in attendance also was equally committed to taking Poppy home.
Tom Gleitsman had come to the auction, just a short walk from his home on Burlington Ave, to bid only on Poppy. He intended to give the statue as a gift to his wife, Taylor Jaeger, who is a well known figure in the La Grange business community, serving as chairperson of the Village's recently reactivated Economic Development Commission.
As the bidding passed the $4,000 mark, Tom and Kelly found themselves the only remaining bidders, standing face to face just a few yards apart across the auction table, countering each other's bids in rapid succession at a $100 a pop.
Higher and higher went their bidding: past $5,000 (the absolute maximum Kelly had planned on spending), past $6,000, then $7,000, then $8,000.
The crowd was gripped, Kelly was becoming visibly emotional and Tom, occasionally leaning against a tent post, seemed unfazed by the tension. "Why do want this elephant so badly?" Kelly asked him directly.
With Kelly's bid now at $8,600, Tom stepped in her direction and said, "I really want this elephant and I'm going to outbid you, so stop bidding."
Why did she want it so badly? he asked her. Kelly told him.
Tom turned to James Drury, the auctioneer. "Eighty-seven hundred," he declared, "and I'm donating it to her school."
The crowd erupted in cheers and applause. An astonished Kelly hugged Tom. She offered to pay half the cost. Tom politely declined her offer. Drury, composing himself, told the crowd they had just witnessed "a magic moment," the likes of which he said he had not seen in his many years with the gavel. Tom disappeared into the night. Kelly stayed, successfully bidding on and buying two more elephants.
Tom's wife, Taylor, was still in attendance as the auction ended about an hour later. She said her husband would not likely respond to a request for comment. He doesn't seek limelight, she said. She was right.
As Poppy was being loaded into her minivan, Kelly spoke of the joy she and her family had experienced since moving into the community: How the neighbors had stopped by with freshly baked muffins; how her eldest daughter, Delanie, had been depressed about leaving friends behind in Aurora but had made new friends so fast that she was "too busy" to attend the auction; how the family looked forward to a block party the next evening.
"The warmth has just been overwhelming," says Kelly. "I told my daughter, 'Mommy's going to die in this house. You're getting married in the back yard. This is where we're staying. This is it.' And for this to happen tonight ... it kind of just ... I think I'm going to cry."
When they came, they would be tears of joy, touched by an angel.
