COVID-19 vaccine Chicago: Family explains overcoming shot hesitancy, encourages others to get vaccinated

CHICAGO (WLS) -- At 97-years-old, Secnoba Comb is the matriarch of the family.

"It just stang a little bit," Comb said.

On Sunday, three generations of Combs got their second Pfizer shots together at Illinois Masonic. And while all were happy to do so, daughter Cheryl said it took her a while to come around.

"It just frightened me. I got COVID in November," Cheryl Comb said. "I said, 'wait a minute, wow. If I can get it, then who else?' Then my nephew had it. He almost died."

"He told me, 'Granny, you need to get it because you seen what it did to me," Secnoba said.

RELATED: COVID-19 vaccine Chicago: Little Village hospital encouraging teens to get vaccinated

So Cheryl put her vaccine hesitancy aside, and made appointments for herself, her mother, her youngest sister, Carolyn, and her sister's 19-year-old son, Erskine. The teen is an aerospace engineer major at University of Illinois, and his entire freshman year has been disrupted by the virus.

"I've been used most of my life to having a routine going to school. So being online all day and not having a routine, a schedule, definitely affected myself," Erskine Comb-Mullins said.

"I'm the biggest scaredy cat there is of getting a shot. I am the biggest baby. If I can go and get vaccinated, you definitely can go," Carolyn said. "This is my son right here. He is my only child. I need to be healthy and around for him and for the future, to see what he's going to become, and for my mother, to be here for her, my sisters, all my family."

All Chicago and Cook County sites, including the United Center, are now offering walk-in COVID vaccines. No appointments are needed.