Not one to easily give up, Sara Tanner has built a successful ice cream and snack shop business in the south suburbs despite significant illness and financial challenges.

Tanner and her husband, Sam, with the help of their six kids and other relatives, manage Paradise Sweets and Eats at Palos Lanes. They feel like they’ve finally come home.

But it wasn’t easy getting there.

Back in 2000, when Tanner was a stay-at-home mom, her mother owned an ice cream truck and told her and her husband it could be a viable business. They bought a truck, but in 2009 it was carjacked.

They decided to try again in 2019, bought another truck and asked a friend and relatives to operate it in Hoopeston, a town along Illinois Route 1 north of Danville. The Tanners managed the logistics from the south suburbs

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