Source: Genevieve Buthod
I don’t know where I would be today without Genevieve Bonadonna’s commitment to the Xavierite. She was an editor for the news section when we met, introduced by our mutual friend Ruby Venus at Coffee Cats. Gen had told Ruby she needed reporters, Ruby told Gen she had the perfect person in mind, and our introduction was arranged.
From there, I asked for an interview with Peter Kreten and pitched a fashion column, which I thought was my only area of expertise.
After learning more about the paper at our weekly staff meetings, I moved into Viewpoints, where I found my true calling.
As the years went by, Gen became the paper’s Editor-in-Chief, and I became the Viewpoints Editor. I loved staying late in the Xavierite office, eating dinner and coming up with story ideas together.
We encouraged each other’s journalistic instincts and helped each other become better writers and editors. And we dealt with our fair share of censorship, which every good journalist must face (if she’s doing her job right.)
But that is just the beginning of our story. In the fall of 2012, I asked Gen if she wanted to move into a small SXU apartment at the corner of 97th and Kedzie.
To my delight, she agreed, and our friendship had the chance to grow even deeper in close quarters. That apartment felt especially “close” the night we threw her younger brother Kevin his 21st birthday party, and the entire Bonadonna clan arrived to celebrate.
I don’t just mean her brother and parents; we packed that apartment with her younger sister and her friends, extended relatives, their neighbors, friends of their family, and anyone else who heard about the party and wanted to join.
We could barely move, the music and conversation was so loud you had to step outside to hear someone talk, and to this day, it is one of my favorite memories.
Source: Genevieve Buthod
One of the hardest parts of moving to a new city for college was the separation from my own huge, loud, loving family.
The night of that party, I realized, was the first time I felt truly at home since arriving at SXU. Here was a family who, like my own, seemed to have a habit of unofficially adopting extra kids who needed a safe place to call home.
There is so much love in their family that it spills over into the lives of everyone who knows them, and we are all the better for it.
My first time attending their important family tradition, the Angelo Bonadonna Jr. Annual Parcheesi Tournament, only reinforced that feeling. Their house was just as packed and chaotic as our apartment had been, and once again, I felt like I finally found my Chicago home.
Friends and family members everywhere you step, combined with serious competitive natures, and so many snacks you feel like you need to take a nap before you head home. And if you do, you’ll wake up to find that someone has put a blanket on you so you can sleep better.
Genevieve Bonadonna is one of the most generous people I have ever met. When I started at the paper, she shared her knowledge and expertise with me.
Not long after, she shared her friendship with me, and then she shared her family with me, too. I will always be grateful to her for that.
In the 13 years that I have known her, we have gone from colleagues to friends to sisters. So thank you to The Xavierite, and thank you, most of all, to Genevieve.
Written by: Genevieve Buthod
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