[Excerpted from Chicago Magazine]
…
“Allison was famous here long before she was famous in Chicago,” says Stephanie Willding, the CEO of CommunityHealth, a West Town nonprofit clinic that is the city’s largest health care facility for the uninsured. Until the pandemic hit, Arwady had been volunteering there every Monday night since 2014. “Her patients love her,” Willding says. “Many of our patients don’t speak English and require an interpreter. One of our interpreters told me he only wants to work on Monday nights so he can translate for Allison.”
When I asked Willding what in particular generated such affection, she didn’t hesitate before answering: “The way she talks to people.”
“How does she talk to them?” I asked.
“Like they’re people.”…