Traci Palucci sits on a bench dedicated to her daughter – a hit-and-run fatality – in Rathje Park in Wheaton. Her daughter, Paige Donahue, will be remembered at a community event at 2 p.m. Saturday in Wheaton’s Memorial Park. (Photo by Kevin Beese/Chronicle Media)

Traci Palucci sat on a park bench dedicated to her daughter – the victim of a fatal hit-and-run accident in Wheaton – and cried.

“I was trying to absorb it all when a kid on a motorcycle showed up and was doing wheelies up and down the street,” Palucci said. “It brought me back to reality.”

The moment’s lack of reverence was not lost on Palucci.

“I bet Paige was laughing,” the Lombard mom said. “If she had the opportunity, she would have done the same thing. My daughter lived big.”

Paige Donahue, Palucci’s youngest daughter, was killed in 2023 when crossing Roosevelt Road near Crest Street in Wheaton.

A bench has been installed in Wheaton’s Rathje Park to remember Paige.

“It took a lot to go there,” Palucci admitted, “but it’s beautiful. There is a bronze plaque. The bench is in front of beautiful flowers. I see my daughter sitting there.”

The plaque dedicating the bench to Paige Donahue (Photo by Kevin Beese/Chronicle Media)

A remembrance of Paige Donahue’s life will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday in Memorial Park, 225 Karlskoga Ave., Wheaton. The event will feature music and a thank-you to Wheaton’s first responders.

Attendees are encouraged to bring blankets or chairs.

The memorial was originally planned for Rathje Park, but moved to Memorial because of the band performance and the likely need for more parking.

“I plan to talk about the first responders,” Palucci said. “These are people who just don’t come to work and put their time in. We need to be more grateful for what they do for us.”

Palucci said that her daughter was so proud that her dad was a police officer.

“When he went to see her after work, she would say, ‘You came in your costume and everything.’ She told everybody about her dad being a police officer,” Palucci said.

Palucci said Wheaton police, on the one-year anniversary of Paige’s death, sent a purple vase with purple flowers (purple was Paige’s favorite color) with a note, stating “We won’t stop trying.”

A 16-month Wheaton police investigation ultimately connected Batavia resident Tarra Fiedler to the crash.

No criminal charges

However, the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office did not file criminal charges against Fiedler, saying that the Batavia woman had no knowledge that she struck a person.

Fiedler was found guilty of failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident with a pedestrian in a Dec. 6 court appearance and her driver’s license was suspended for one year.

Palucci said what she sees as a disappointing outcome in court does not diminish her appreciation of Wheaton’s first responders.

Paige Donahue (Provided photo)

“Things did not go our way, but no first responder gets thanked for putting his or her best efforts into everything,” the Lombard resident said. “I know every one of the paramedics did their best to save Paige’s life.

“The police work that was done went above and beyond. They need to be thanked. It’s not that we are not grateful.”

Palucci said Saturday’s event is aimed at remembering Paige, but also building up the morale of police.

“I hope it changes how we think about police. Paige knew and loved all the Wheaton police,” Palucci said. “No one puts on a uniform to ruin someone’s day.”

She said key chains with CPR masks and wristbands for kids will be distributed at Saturday’s event.

Poor Boys II restaurant has donated money for water for first responders and other attendees Saturday.

Palucci, who works in emergency medicine, knows what it is like for parents to grieve over children.

“I’ve had to pull parents off of kids,” Palucci said. “Then, to be in that position? No one deserves to be in that position.

“(Tarra Fiedler) did not just kill my daughter. She killed my family. A part of us died with Paige. Holidays, birthdays will never be the same.

“I have no current picture of my daughter and I never will. I can’t change the picture frame with an updated picture because she’s not here.”

‘She lived life’

Paige had epilepsy, but the affliction did not define her, according to her mother.

“Her disability did not stop here. There was not anything she missed out on,” Palucci said. “‘She lived life how she wanted to.”

Palucci spends a moment thinking about her daughter near a pond in Rathje Park and in front of the bench dedicated to her daughter. (Photo by Kevin Beese/Chronicle Media)

Palucci said her first trip to the Wheaton park bench was memorable for more than just the motorcycle.

“I was walking up to the bench and there was a feather stuck in the ground,” Palucci said. “I thought, ‘That’s strange.’ I picked the feather up and went to take a picture of the bench. I put the feather by the plaque. The spot is so beautiful, so perfect. I wish she was alive. She would love it.”

She said the Rathje Park location, overlooking flowers and water, is a perfect location for Paige’s bench.

“It reminds me of Wisconsin. It is so relaxing,” she said.

Palucci noted that her daughter spent as much time as possible outside at the Canticle Place Apartments in Wheaton.

“She would take all her beads to make bracelets and sit outside. She loved the outdoors,” Palucci said.

Palucci said she was thankful no one else was around during that park visit.

“I was talking to her and I was talking to myself,” she remembered.

Palucci hopes to meet with State Sen. Seth Lewis, R-Bartlett, about improving pedestrian safety in the area along Roosevelt Road where her daughter was killed.

“I will probably never see it in my life, but there are no street signs, lights or ‘yield to pedestrian’ signs there,” Palucci said. “The state says ‘no.’ Wheaton says ‘no.’

“It is still the same situation. Kids should be able to walk to (Rathje) Park. There is no safe route for kids, adults, anybody to walk to the park or to walk to Target to get groceries. How can officials justify that? They need to make sure citizens are protected.

“People forget. At the end of the day, if we don’t remember Paige’s death, it will happen again.”

She noted that Paige was the third pedestrian killed in an accident along Roosevelt Road in Wheaton.

“We could have sued the state and Wheaton for negligence,” Palucci said. “Why isn’t that park safe to get to?”

kbeese@chronicleillinois.com