A YEAR LATER
Megan McGarvey hooked her hands under the delicate arms of her newborn son, lifted him toward a maternity ward window at Butler Memorial Hospital and introduced him to the world.
His grandparents and aunts looked on from atop the adjacent hospital parking garage and erupted into cheers.
They smiled.
They laughed.
They wept with joy.
“We held him up,” Megan said, laughing, “like 'The Lion King.'”
Simba has nothing on Emmett Michael McGarvey, whose birth was ushered in with the pomp and fanfare usually reserved for a sporting event.
Or a movie premiere.
It wasn't the way the family envisioned Emmett's arrival. On the day he was born — May 1, 2020 — the world was in the early grips of a pandemic, and it was sweeping unrelentingly across Butler County.
The Chicora family feared they wouldn't be able to welcome Emmett.
So, they improvised.
Only Megan and father Evan McGarvey were permitted inside the hospital for Emmett's delivery.
But there was no stopping this family — experienced in the art of tailgating as Pittsburgh Steelers' season ticket holders.
If they couldn't be inside the hospital, they'd do the next best thing.
They'd have a party atop a parking garage.“Because we are Steeler pregamers,” said Molly Hegedus, Megan's mother. “We are used to tailgating every single weekend for home games. We wanted to be there and be a part of it, and this was the only way we could be there.”COVID-19 wasn't going to ruin that day for them.Emmett has become something of a celebrity already in his young life.His birth was chronicled on the front page of the Eagle, and a video of the announcement drew 160,000 views on YouTube.“The day he was born, he was in the newspaper, front page,” Megan said, smiling. “Never forget it. Never.”Anatomy of a tailgateOn the morning of Emmett's birth, a tailgate wasn't even a thought.The original plan was for the family to gather at home and wait for a video call to announce Emmett's arrival.Evan and Megan arrived at the hospital at 6 a.m., and Megan was set to have labor induced a few hours later.Megan, though, discovered quickly that cell service inside the ward was spotty at best.So, a new plan was hatched.The family quickly gathered coolers, snacks and chairs, loaded up their vehicles and made the trip to the hospital parking garage.“I got a call they were here,” Evan said. “I was shocked.”When he peered out the window, he noticed the perfect view of the top of the parking structure.“I said, 'It would be great if you came up to the top level of the parking garage,” Evan said. “It was so perfect. It was so exciting.”That's where the family set up.The wait was agonizing at times.
It was a cold day for May 1, with a biting wind. But the family is familiar with chilly tailgates — Mike and Molly Hegedus, Megan's parents, are Pittsburgh Steelers season ticket holders — while waiting for Steelers' kickoffs in December.Megan had no idea her family was even outside until after Emmett's birth.“It was surreal,” Megan said. “That day was amazing.”Because the tailgate happened at the last minute, nurses had Evan craft signs — one for a boy and one for a girl.No one knew the sex of the baby — that's the way Megan and Evan wanted it.But there were plenty of theories.Everyone but Evan and Emily Hegedus — the youngest of Megan's two sisters — thought it was a girl.“He was the first boy (grandchild),” said Diane McGarvey, Evan's mother.“I was just sure it was a girl,” Molly added. “I had so many girls' clothes picked out.”It was a boy after all, and he had a special name.His middle name, Michael, was after his grandfather, Mike Hegedus.When Mike heard the name, he wept.“It was pretty special,” Mike said. “It just brought me to tears.”So did the lengths the nursing staff went to for the family.“The nurses were fantastic,” Evan said. “They made us feel comfortable, especially given the circumstances with the pandemic. We just felt the excitement of the day. We kind of forgot about everything else. They took great care of us. They took great care of (Megan). She was as comfortable as she could be through the process.”“Wonderful people,” Megan added. “Wonderful.”A birth amid a pandemic
Megan and Evan were understandably nervous about Emmett's impending birth.With so many unknowns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, everyone in the family was cautious to the extreme.Megan took her maternity leave two weeks early so she could quarantine. The grandparents went as far as ordering groceries for pickup.And the aunts, women in their early 20s, isolated themselves as well.“There was no way we were going to miss seeing him when he was a newborn,” said Annie Hegedus, Megan's sister. “No way. Megan was very cautious. They wouldn't have let us see him if we were out partying and hanging out with friends.”The family made many sacrifices.They were all well worth it, they said.“We're still cautious,” Molly said. “We're not out of the woods yet on this.”A little boy in a pandemicThings still aren't back to normal.Emmett has spent the first 11 months of his life living in a pandemic.“We have done pretty much nothing,” Megan said. “We do a lot at our house with our immediate families. We go on a lot of walks. We went to our first restaurant (since) having him. That was interesting. He enjoyed it. It felt a little normal, which was nice.”
Evan said the flip side of isolating during a pandemic is that it has brought his young family closer.“I wouldn't change anything that we've done with him thus far,” Evan said. “It's been a great experience. The fact we can't go out and about actually has been nice for us. I think we are definitely looking forward to doing things with him as he grows up.”One thing the pandemic did was make Emmett's entrance into the world more than memorable.Emmett giggles when Megan tosses him gently into the air.He smiles as he holds his parents' hands and totters forward.Emmett Michael McGarvey has no idea the circumstances he was born into, or how his family persevered in some of the most difficult of times.He just knows love.“With COVID, it wasn't what we expected,” Megan said. “But it was better than I could have ever imagined.”
<br />
<br />
<br />
