NEAR WEST SIDE — A giant message in the snow on top of Rush University Medical Center's parking garage was intended for a woman who was recently diagnosed with leukemia.
Late Saturday evening — after recently being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia — Shari Hart got a phone call from her 14-year-old son Will, who was on his way to visit her at the hospital.
"He called me on the phone and said, 'Look out your window, look out your window,'" Hart said Tuesday from her room at the hospital at 1653 W. Congress Pkwy.
Looking out at the top of Rush's Parking Garage, Hart was greeted by a giant message in the snow that said "HI MOM." The "o" in mom had a smiley face and Will was standing next to the message waving and blowing kisses at his mom.
"That meant everything. It was a proud mommy moment," said Hart, of Bolingbrook. "The message alone has carried me throughout this time, and I think it will continue to carry me for quite some time."
After other patients at Rush began talking about the message, Will's dad Tim wanted to add a "God Bless U All," to the snowy message, Hart said. Ultimately, the family ran out of space and the message became "HI MOM GOD BLESS U!"
Angela Washek, a 26-year-old surgical nurse who took a photo of the message, said she and her fellow nurses originally saw four people on the roof of the parking garage Saturday night, but assumed they were just goofing around.
But around 1 a.m. Sunday, Washek noticed the message.
"It made everybody's night so much better, seeing a good message like that," said Washek, who's worked at the hospital for two years. "Sometimes we only see the bad side in health care. We don't get to see the good that we do sometimes."