The three children of an elderly Maywood couple want answers after firefighters say their parents were found unresponsive in their overheated home Sunday.
A malfunctioning furnace is blamed in the deaths of 80-year-old Leevell Robinson and his his wife, Ora, 78.
"They were married over 56 years. They were right there for each other," Terri Robinson, the couple's oldest child, said Tuesday.
She said her father worked at International Harvester for 30 years before retiring. Her mother, she said, was the voice of reason and the "June Cleaver" of the neighborhood, bringing Gatorade and snacks for everyone at the Little League games when her sons played.
More recently, she said, the family stayed close by regularly gathering to pay poker.
"We played poker once a month, just the family, and we would sit around and talk, eat and laugh and have a good time and play poker, hours on," the daughter said. "Catching up, reminiscing, laughing, sharing recipes, sharing stories.
"Family meant everything to them."
Terri Robinson says she and her brothers want to know how a furnace could have malfunctioned and overheated the Maywood home where the couple lived and all three children grew up.
Leevell and Ora Robinson died Sunday, just hours apart.
"We could've handled maybe (losing) one. But losing both of them at the same time has put a hole in our hearts that we wouldn't want our worst enemy to ever feel," Terri Robinson said.
The couple had two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Autopsy results released Monday revealed they died of heat exposure due to a furnace malfunctioning, the medical examiner's office said. Their deaths were ruled accidental, according to the Sun-Times Media Wire.
