SYCAMORE – Big shoes to fill. That’s an appropriate way to describe what DeKalb County officials now must do, with Gracie Rodriguez retiring as the county’s court interpreter.
For 17 years, she has translated as defendants and witnesses have rattled off confessions and other crucial details. She has translated at innumerable weddings.
She’s done the job with flair, professionalism and, appropriately, grace.
She and one of her closest friends in the courthouse, Adam Christiansen, a senior probation officer in the pretrial division of DeKalb County Court Services, got real Friday afternoon – her last day of work – about fashion.
“I don’t really think either one of us needs any tips on fashion,” Rodriguez said, cracking him up.
She’s right. Yet, in that quick window before bond hearings every day, they compare notes. Christiansen often comments on how well her shoes work – most often giving at least one thumb up.
Here are the facts of the case, however: Rodriguez moved to Illinois with her husband and their two children when the job market dried up in Texas, and he found a job here in construction. She worked for a nursing agency, then DeKalb School District 428, before an opportunity opened in court services. They had two children here in Illinois.
Although she’s been a breath of fresh air for everyone at the courthouse, she initially dove in headfirst. English was her first language growing up in Donna, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, although she was surrounded by Spanish speakers through her upbringing.
Stepping into a courtroom, she had another vernacular to plow through.
“Legal terminology, legalese, is like learning a third language,” she said.
She’s taken a lot of pride in not only interpreting, but sitting in on hearings and trials where her service wasn’t needed, so she could jot down phrases and strut back to her office and figure out what they meant.
The result?
“Pretty much every person who comes through the system appreciates that they’re able to understand through me,” she said.
She’s retiring from this job to move back to Texas, where her mother, Viola Valdez, is fighting health issues, and where her four children – Audrey, Michael, Matthew and Amanda – live within 20 miles of each other in the Dallas area.
Rodriguez is unsure where she’ll live.
“Wherever I can find a job, that’s where I’m going,” she said, laughing.
Her mother lives about eight hours south of Dallas, so we’ll see where she ends up.
Another verdict still is pending.
“The shoes that will need to be filled when she leaves, I don’t know if it’s possible,” Christiansen said.