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After a three-year battle with leukemia, Dylan Schroeder’s parents wanted to surprise their truck-loving 6-year-old son with a parade to celebrate his last dose of chemotherapy.
They had no idea how many people wanted to help.
For nearly two hours on Sunday afternoon, hundreds of trucks of all sizes and purposes drove past an excited Dylan, his family, friends and neighbors past his Arlington Heights home. Horns and sirens sounded and the engines of exotic cars roared as they joined them. Signs with messages recognizing Dylan as a superhero – or a ninja, as he prefers – repeated what a sign in the Schroeder’s yard said.
Dylan kicked the buttocks with cancer.
“I’m overwhelmed,” said Dylan’s dad, Fred Schroeder. “The number of trucks was endless. I am completely amazed and blown away.
“For Dylan, who is celebrating his last day of chemo here, 3 and a half years later, he’s done, he kicked the butt in the cancer,” he added. “I’m so grateful, I’m trying not to suffocate here.”
The Schroeders managed to keep the parade a secret, which Fred called an “epic” feat.
“He deserves it,” he says. “The child has come a long way. Half of his life has struggled with leukemia.
“And he won.
Dylan’s mother, Joanne, said her reaction was worth everything they’ve been through in recent years.
“It was literally the best thing ever,” to see him so excited, she said. “It completely fills your heart, it makes every hard day tear so worth it, just to be able to give that to her at the end.”
“He worked so hard and he had such a positive attitude.”
Dylan will still do blood tests every month next year, and then every two months the following year. His parents are hoping that he will soon be able to remove his chemo port.
“It’s still a long way, but there is no more treatment, there is no more chemo, there is no more drugs,” said Fred Schroeder.
Truck after car after jeep after motorcycle passed him, honking their horns and cranking their engines, Dylan rarely ceased to agitate or show his enthusiasm.
“It was great,” he said afterwards. What did he feel? “Really happy, happy, happy, happy.”
And when asked how he felt about not having to do chemotherapy anymore, Dylan’s feelings were just as clear.
“Great, trick, trick, trick, trick, trick happy.”
“The show was so much more than I expected,” said Joanna Schroeder. “It was bigger, better, stronger than anyone ever thought it would be. It was amazing and we are so grateful to this amazing community that we have who wanted to come and help us and make the day for it.”
“As crazy as 2020 has been, there are still some amazing things in this world,” added Fred Schroeder. “There are some amazing people.”
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