HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (WLS) — Highland Park is holding another vigil Wednesday night after tragedy tore through the city.These memorials have been powerful for this community, as they keep finding ways to rally together and get through this.
“There are so many people who are injured physically and mentally, so there’s a lot of healing to do, but we are all here supporting each other,” longtime Highland Park resident Sue Monhait said.
Monhait owns a couple of local businesses, and has been using one to help create more than 8,000 support ribbons.
It’s a small gesture that goes a long way in uniting her community during this tragedy.
“It’s just another way to bind people together to show that we care for each other, which is really what Highland Park has always been about and will continue to be about,” Monhait said.
Others pass by these memorials each morning, praying for their community, while also thinking of their own luck.
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Stella Flores said her husband didn’t feel well on the day of the parade, and that may have saved his life.
“He usually works, every year, in that corner, specifically in that corner, so something, God help us I don’t know; he didn’t go,” Flores said.
Whether these residents were at the parade or not, they’re all now relying on each other to move on but never forget.
“Everybody has a story of the experience at that time, and you don’t even have to talk about it, just being together, sharing the common situation together and having places and venues to do that has been amazing,” Monhait said.
That will continue Wednesday night with another vigil held by the city at 7 p.m. outside City Hall, and, in the meantime, there is still one victim of that shooting fighting for his life.
RELATED: Highland Park shooting: Paralyzed 8-year-old back in critical condition, completes 7th surgery
The family of 8-year-old Cooper Roberts said his condition has been downgraded from serious to critical, as he remains paralyzed from the waist down.
Roberts is also suffering from a severe fever and an elevated heart rate from a new infection, which is now being treated with medication.
“I hope, and I think everyone here is hoping and praying, that he will have the best possible outcome, but it’s a long road ahead,” said Dr. Ana Velez-Rosborough a trauma surgeon at NorthShore University HealthSystem.
Relatives said he also has a partially-collapsed lung.
Cooper did undergo successful surgery to repair a tear in his esophagus.
“That little kid, he is a trooper,” Velez-Rosborough said.
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