Senior living resident honors friend, fellow vet and Holocaust survivor with surprise ceremony

CAROL STREAM, Ill. — International Holocaust Remembrance Day is Saturday, January 27.

Ahead of the day, a local man was honored at Belmont Village Senior Living in Carol Stream.

Dear friends Myron Petrakis and George Levy Mueller are both veterans and at one point, lived and worked just blocks from one another. They talk about their grandkids, the Cubs and the lunch menu. But it wasn’t until two years ago that Petrakis learned his buddy survived not one but three concentration camps with his younger sister Ursula.

“Every day I think of what he went through,” Petrakis said. “He has an experience that we’re sharing that we never would have known if I hadn’t known George.”

So Petrakis got to work planning a special ceremony to honor his friend, a simple ceremony to honor the trials he overcame.

“I am surprised because we don’t really talk about that,” Mueller said.

Two friends bonded by a piece of history where each sees the other as a hero.

At 101-years-old Myron Petrakis said it’s never too late to honor someone’s life and for Mueller it was a tribute long overdue.