They could have been separated by race. Instead, they were united by mutual respect.
Lillian Stokes is gone now. Henry Petrilli, almost 95, eventually moved from Illinois to Wellesley and then to North Hill in Needham.
Time and distance didn't change Petrilli's admiration for the woman he thought of as "the sister I never had." The two met on the job, while working for the Illinois Department of Welfare. It was wartime, and Lillian took over her husband's job while he was in the service.
Lillian was Black. Petrilli, 19 at the time, is white, and Lillian was the first black person he really got to know. As the two co-workers became friends over the the next three years, Petrilli gained insight into what it meant to be part of a society where skin color defined one's place.