The Chicago heat wave of 1995 wasn’t indiscriminate. It took the lives of the city’s most vulnerable: the elderly, the infirm, the forgotten shut-ins…the people who had fallen through the cracks. It wasn’t just the heat that killed. It was the heat, magnified by social circumstance, physical geography and institutional response. All this week, we’ve been revisiting those scorching days, and dissecting the city’s response. Today, we talk about caring for those who were closest to the danger. For many, looking after the elderly falls on family members and neighbors. But what if you can’t count on that? We speak with Joyce Gallagher, executive director of the Area Agency on Aging, part of the Department of Family and Support Services. (Flickr/Luis Hernandez)