Article: A messenger's last ride As a bike messenger, Tommy McBride came in contact with busy streets, hot tempers and moving vehicles every day. It's what made his job exciting - and it may very well be what killed him.(Suburban Living)

Byline: Lisa Friedman Miner Daily Herald Staff Writer

Each morning for months, Mary Ellen McBride rode the train downtown with her son, Tommy.

Tommy was 26, living with his parents in St. Charles for a few months after moving back from Seattle. He worked as a bike messenger, making decent money while he juggled a few college classes.

Mary Ellen McBride knew that the streets in the Loop were tough.

"I worried about him getting hurt," she says. "I said a prayer every day when he left me at the station."

Their commute together ended in 1999 when Tommy got a place of his own in Oak Park.

Then that spring the McBrides got ...

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