The Jones family of Beverly was finally able to participate in the Southside Irish Parade on Sunday.
And Mr. and Mrs. Jones were the guests of honor.
The families were on a float benefiting the parade's grand marshal, the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana.
As a snowflake or two fell, tens of thousands of parade participants braved temperatures of more than 30 degrees Celsius to see happy families on floats.
Dave and Megan Jones and their children (Bobby, Joey, Jameson and Jack) were smiling and waving from a McDonald's float.
But two years ago, they weren't laughing very much, and they weren't smiling.
Joey, James, and Jack are triplets born prematurely on March 11, 2022. In July of that year, all three were rushed to Loyola Medical Center in Maywood after contracting respiratory syncytial virus.
“They were literally fighting for their lives,” Meghan said. “They were only a few months old at the time and their lungs were not fully developed as they were premature.
“I was really scared when I got RSV.”
The Donald McDonald House organization twice came to bat for the Jones family.
When the triplets were born early, they spent nine months in the neonatal intensive care unit at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
“They filled the family room there with our food,” Meghan said of McDonald House. She said, “I didn't have to worry about food during my stay, which was really nice.''
But the organization isn't done helping.
During the two weeks the triplets stayed in Maywood, the rest of the family was able to stay at the nearby Ronald McDonald House facility.
This allowed Dave and Meghan to be with their baby 24 hours a day.
“The house was a great resource at the time,” Dave says. “That took a lot of pressure off of us. Loyola is about an hour away, so it would have been difficult to worry about getting there and back and spending time at the hospital.
“Mentally, I was able to focus on helping my kids recover. It took a lot of weight off my shoulders, so I was able to focus on what was important.”
Once the appropriate medication was administered and effective, the triplets were able to return to Beverly.
Dave is originally from Chicago and works in customer service at ShipBob, a commerce fulfillment company founded in 2014. Meghan is from Homer She is from Glen and St. She is a substitute teacher at Barnabas School.
They are both happy to report that the triplets have had no medical issues since the summer of 2022.
The triplets will celebrate their first birthday in 2023, and the parade was scheduled for the day after the party. Meghan said she was exhausted because she couldn't participate last year, but she was ready this year.
The 2024 parade had more than 100 participants, including many schools and civic groups.
The 100-year-old Smith Village senior living facility was honored in the parade. Mary Kate Barron was Ireland's parade queen.
Unusually, Evergreen Park native Jamie Keaton, better known as Can Head, was in attendance.
He holds the Guinness World Record for most beverage cans stuck to the head.
He was born with a unique skin.
“The pores in my skin literally suck in oxygen at high velocity,” he said. “The can sticks to your skin.”
Keaton, who lives in Florida and Kenosha, Wisconsin, said he has traveled around the world and appeared in Saturday's parade in Chicago. Using her ability to stick cans to her face, she has appeared at corporate events and markets.
Once the parade started, the viewing area was crowded. But minutes before the noon kickoff, there were fewer people than usual, and the cold seemed to be keeping people away.
But after an hour of walking, Christine Kramer and her daughter Mackenzie of Beverly waited patiently for 30 minutes to get to their spot.
“We come here almost every year,” Christine said. “It started for me when I went to school in first grade. I was in the Girl Scout parade and we keep coming back.”
Christine said she loves many things about the parade.
“I love music and we all get along so well,” she said. “I love float and marching band… everything.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
