'Emily's Day': Community Comes Together for Tribute to Mt. Greenwood 12-year-old

For a moment, Emily Beazley struggled to tear off the plastic covering the street sign bearing her name. And then came a chant that started softly, and swelled into a chorus.

“You can do it,” over and over, encouraging the 12-year-old cancer warrior to give it one more tug.

As hundreds turned their eyes to the top of the ladder where Emily was perched, they waited for the transformation of Homan Avenue. TV news crews positioned cameras ready to roll, capturing the South Side celebrity in her big moment. With her dad beside her on the ladder, one arm wrapped around her waist, Emily did what she has always done: she found the strength. Homan Avenue from 107th to 108th streets became ”Honorary Emily Beazley Avenue.”

“Our Emily is your Emily,” Beazley said. “It really means so much to our family, that this many people care about our family. You guys have rallied behind her and kept our spirits up when we needed it.”

But the neighborhood took its cue from the Mt. Greenwood 12-year-old who has led the way with positivity, despite a grim prognosis for the cancer that she has been battling for more than four years.

“People can relate to her,” Beazley said. “No matter what your struggle is, it’s about not giving up.

“It’s what Em’s about.”

Emily has an entire community—even an entire region—backing her up. In a “Light It Up for Emily” movement, residents and businesses have switched their lightbulbs for ones in purple and green, purple for her favorite color and green for the color associated with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. She was first diagnosed with NHL in 2011. She and her family cruise the neighborhood, taking in the lights, and marveling in how many know of her plight. The outreach stretches across their neighborhood into the Southland, even around the country and world, with purple and green lights shining for Emily in California, New Jersey and more. Any business with a marquee uses it to spread the word of “Light It Up for Emily.” Buildings downtown—even Soldier Field—have glowed green and purple in tribute to the pre-teen.

The support will keep coming in the days ahead. A Dunkin Donuts at 3206 W 111th St. has even created “Emily’s Delight”, a green and purple doughnut in her honor. A portion of proceeds will go to the Beazley family. Students at Marist High School have organized a special prom for her, and everyone who knows her story is pulling every string they can think of to connect Emily with her favorite pop star Taylor Swift.

For her family, her daily struggle can be challenging to witness, and looking ahead to planned events lifts their spirits. The significance of the street sign unveiling was not lost on Emily.

“She knows people will look at that, and always remember her,” Beazley said.

While uplifting, the support doesn’t change the reality for the Beazley family. She was first diagnosed with stage-3 T-cell lymphoblastic non-Hodgkin lymphoma on April 7, 2011. She finished treatment on July 18, 2013. Since then, she has relapsed several times. Last August, her little sister Olivia donated stem cells but Emily relapsed again in January. Her family was recently told she will never go into remission.

“As the days go on, it’s getting more difficult for her,” said Beazley, a Chicago police detective. “She has been slowing down. It’s happening a lot quicker than I thought it would.”

Still, Emily refuses to give up the fight.

“She said she’s going to prove the doctors wrong.”

Her body is strong enough for more treatment, Beazley said, but there are no more options available for them.

“Science has failed her,” her mother Nadia wrote in a Facebook update this week.”

Their days are spent together, playing Mario Kart, Apples to Apples, and trying to outdo each other’s “Your Mama” jokes, which have earned Emily a reputation at each hospital she visited.

“We’re trying to keep her as active as we can, as ’nice’ as we can,” Beazley said. “Going through this, you don’t know what’s going through her head.”

The sign means more to Beazley than just the name.

“Today was incredible. I see the sign, and know what it means. I knew Em was loved in this neighborhood, but this is way beyond the neighborhood. ... I don’t think I’ll ever move.”

Emily continues to set an example for those around her, he said.

“She has taught us how to love, how to fight,” he said. “She never let this change her. She has always been the same Emily. She lives in the land of unicorns and rainbows. She’s the nicest, sweetest girl.”

Her family still prays for a miracle.

For now, someone who can connect her with Taylor Swift would do. If Taylor can’t make it in person, FaceTime would do just fine, she said.

And if Taylor’s too busy for that, Emily would love a photo of her favorite singer, wearing purple and green.

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