BOLINGBROOK, Ill. -- Early on the morning of July 31, Marilyn Stark arrived at the northwest corner of Boughton Road and Featherstone Drive.

She was halfway through the hour-long walk she took almost every day, said Eleanor Welz, her life partner. The two usually made the trip together, but that day, Welz had other plans, so Stark set out alone.

Stepping up to the curb across the street from the newly opened Promenade Bolingbrook, the open-air shopping center, Stark looked east across the intersection, shading her eyes. The traffic signal was red.

Not far away, Judith Chitty, then 49, was driving a yellow bus for the Valley View School District. One small child was sitting somewhere in the seats behind her. Chitty's bus was southbound on Featherstone Drive and stopped at the light. She wanted to turn west on Boughton Road.

While waiting at the intersection, Chitty saw Stark. Then she looked both ways and turned the bus to the right. After it started rolling, she heard two thumps.

She thought the bus had collided with a car, Chitty later told Bolingbrook police. But it was Stark. And the entire incident was caught on videotape by a security camera at the nearby Macy's department store. By 8:40 a.m., the 66-year-old from Bolingbrook was dead.

For Welz, it was an unexpected end. Their union had thrived for nearly four decades.

"I was counting on going first, naturally, because I was older," said Welz, now 78. "I never thought I would be the one left here."

Now a lawyer has filed a wrongful death suit against Chitty, 50, of Romeoville, and the school district, seeking damages of more than $50,000. The lawsuit accuses Chitty of being negligent and careless while disobeying a red light and making a right-hand turn.

John Kogut, the Joliet-based lawyer who is representing Stark's sister and Welz, tried to work out a financial settlement for his clients before he filed the suit.

"It seems as if the negotiations have stalled," Kogut said.

The suit has two parts, he explained. One involves the injuries suffered by Stark, and the other addresses her death. If it is successful, the sister will collect damages from the wrongful death portion. And Welz will collect from the personal injury.

Under the wrongful death act, the law says that a surviving spouse or next-of-kin are the only people who can recover damages in this type of suit.

"Ellie Welz is neither," Kogut said. "The law gives no recognition to their relationship, even though they spent 37 years together."

Stark lived quite a life. She served in the Marine Corps, and after her discharge at 21, she came to Chicago looking for work in the advertising industry, Welz said. She was an illustrator and later moved from working at a drawing board to a computer.

After her 2001 retirement, Stark continued to freelance as a graphic artist.

For the last 12 years of her life, she was president of the board of trustees of Unity Church of Oak Park and served as chaplain. She sang in the choir and was revered for her work as a soloist.

In the months before her death, Stark was busy.

She was in charge of planning and organizing the 50th anniversary celebration at her church. She also had a big freelance job to complete for a company that did quite a bit of work for McDonald's, Welz said. She'd recently been a featured singer at the banquet of a convention, and she was planning a trip with Welz and other members of their church to England.

"She was really looking forward to the trip," Welz said. "It was something she really wanted to do."

On the day Stark died, Welz was playing golf in a league at Western Acres Golf Course in Lombard. She tried to telephone Stark, didn't get an answer, and knew something wasn't right.

"We only had one car, and she wouldn't walk that long," Welz said. Around noon, she sat down for lunch, and tried Stark again. No answer. "I knew something was wrong."

As she drove home, several friends called her cell phone, wondering what had happened.

When Stark was hit, she didn't have any identification with her, but she did have her own cell phone, Welz said. The police began calling the numbers they found inside, so friends heard the news first and then identified Stark's body, she said.

"I believe in divine intervention," Welz said. "I think this was her way of protecting me."

Then the police called. When Welz heard that they wanted to meet her in person, she knew Stark was dead.

"I was prepared when they arrived to hear the worst," she said. "I didn't know how she had died."

After the incident, Bolingbrook police issued tickets for failure to yield at a red traffic signal and failing to exercise due care to avoid colliding with a pedestrian. Those tickets ultimately were dismissed, Kogut said.

Margaret Firnstein, a Chicago-based lawyer representing the school district in this case, said she believed Chitty was on a leave of absence.

Cathleen Elliot, a Bolingbrook lawyer and general counsel for the school district, wouldn't comment on Chitty's employment status. School Superintendent Phillip Schoffstall could not be reached for comment.

Attempts to reach Chitty for comment were unsuccessful.

Every time a school bus passes by, Welz is reminded of the fatal collision. And she wants to know why Chitty made that fateful maneuver.

"I just don't understand why they allow them to turn right on a red light," she said, her voice rising. "Anyone who has driven a bus like that knows the visibility is really poor."

She's adjusted to the loss, but she misses her dearest companion.

"Being 78, I figure even if I live to be 100, that's only 22 years," Welz said. "It won't be that long until we are together again."

Copyright 2008, Sun-Times News Group