Michele Marie O'Brien
Aug. 16, 1967 - Mar. 23, 2009
Aug. 16, 1967 - Mar. 23, 2009
Funny thing...life.
One minute you think you're at the top of your game and the next, you're down for the count.
Last night, my son Khyle received a call from his brother Adam exclaiming that something was terribly wrong with their
"step mom" and that he needed to get to the hospital right away.
He had found Michele laying very still beside her treadmill and although he tried to revive her with the help of his friend Emily, nothing. The two waited for the ambulance hoping that Michele would respond to the EMT's expertise.
Khyle left our house in a hurry....he had a half hour drive to the hospital...there wasn't any time to waste.
Sadly enough, Michele did not recover.
In an instant, she became that shooting star, soaring across the night sky, ever so bright.
Michele was an awesome role model for my boys. She worked extremely hard at whatever she put her mind to, including, raising her two wonderful children, receiving her Masters Degree from SUNY Brockport (as a single parent), maintaining a full time position at Kodak, teaching college math part time, providing my children guidance whenever summoned...the list is endless.
Those of us that were fortunate enough to have been touched by Michele, are better people for sure. In the past ten years, I learned that her greatest strength was her ability to see the positive in everything.
Amazingly, she was able to bring Tom (my ex-husband) and I to a better place, one, finally free of anger and resentment toward each other; it took awhile but she was not going to take "no" for an answer. I will be forever indebted.
This past Sunday, my birthday, Tom and Michele brought Adam back home. It was so good to see her and she looked prettier than ever....she was glowing. We caught ourselves up with what we had missed out on the past several months, made a tentative plan to see a Chris Botti concert on May 16th and said our goodbyes.
Little did I know...
One must realize their own mortality at a time like this and if Michele were here, she would know exactly what to say and how to comfort all of us so that it made sense.
I wish you were here Michele!
