Taylor, son look back by looking ahead

• Reprints

12/20/11 Glenview Glenview resident Tamara Taylor and her 3 children load up their car with toys to take to Lutheran General Hospital's oncology floor. Her son is a a leukemia survivor and he was treated at Lutheran General. Tamara Taylor and her daughter Maya Bassin,15 get ready to load up the car. | Tamara Bell~Sun Times Media

Updated: February 20, 2012 9:00AM

Tamara Taylor, an 11-year Glenview resident, is “an unbelievable optimist.”

“I have been gifted with a sincere drive to celebrate life and to try to enrich the lives of everyone around me in some way,” says Taylor, who’s owned Planet Promotions, a Glenview business for 14 years.

“I have always been a very hard worker and (am) deeply interested in the balance of working hard and enjoying my life with my family.”

The mother of three children, Maya, 15, Jacob “Coby,” 13 and Lily, 6 — Taylor has worn many party hats as event organizer and all-around mom.

Her son Coby recently celebrated his bar mitzvah.

But with her next big event pretty much celebrating her new blended family — Carol Brady, please step aside.

With her fiancé Todd Holmes, her new home might hark back to a 1970s television sitcom.

“My fiancé Todd Holmes a great new addition to my life and my children’s life,” said Taylor. “He is an interesting entrepreneur who was a founder of Goose Island Beer Company and several other successful technology businesses and has joined me in Glenview after 20 years in Lincoln Park with his three girls.

We just moved into a new home in the Glen and have merged our two families.

Yes, we now have six kids and everyone calls us the Brady Bunch!”

So imagine the New Year now facing Taylor, whose Planet Promotions business gravitates around a busy household.

And while her priorities remain with family, “my most significant contributions this year was the Do-Gooders Do Dah with Mercedes at Autohaus on Edens. I am a zealous fundraiser in my personal life.

She adds: “We donated over $50,000 in goods, services and cash to five winning non-profits on the North Shore to support their fundraising overhead.

It was an event producer’s dream to have this kind of corporate support.”

Taylor is grateful for the Leukemia Research Foundation. Her son Coby was diagnosed with leukemia at 17 months old.

With three years and two months of chemotherapy at Park Ridge’s Lutheran General Hospital, Coby’s “first words were ‘all done, no more.’”

Adds Taylor: “He had two surgeries, dozens of spinal taps, blood and platelet transfusions, bacterial and fungal infections. He was tough and we were lucky.

So many peoples’ stories are not so lucky. We are thankful every day that we were one of the lucky families.”

Taylor is grateful for the medical community, and in particular, a toy box at the doctor’s office near Lutheran General.

“This toy box (took) on a life of its own,” she recalls. “It sits in the back of the practice and it was my only savior during treatments.”

“It kept him (her son) focused and gave me the only real leverage to help him get through treatments.

I loved this toy chest as much as he did.”

“Luckily he has no negative results from his experience,” said Taylor. “Many children have developmental and emotional issues when they are treated so young.

“Luckily for us, Coby is a normal sevent- grader with a sensitive, generous spirit that is quite special. He plays bass in a band, plays basketball and has terrific grades. He is gift to all of us.”

Any messages from a mom on a mission and owner of a business named Planet Promotions?

“Life is short,” reminds Taylor.

“We have to embrace, celebrate and activate in whatever your passions are. Be mindful that everything we do impacts our world and our health and that we should take both seriously.”

Visit www.planetpromotions.biz