April 7th 2009

M.W.--Just received this very sad email from friends in SA. Please pray for this mom and the whole family.

"Michael was in a very bad auto accident in September 2007 in Louisiana.
Well I had the phone call every parent dreads last night. My son is gone.
He and Shanna were trying to reconcile and had moved to Buckeye, AZ in December. Things were going good for them. Shanna had a job managing an apartment complex in Phoenix and Michael was in an electrician apprenticeship program because he didn't have his tools any more to do millwright work. I talked to Michael on Sunday afternoon and he sounded good. He said Shanna's parents had come up with a big truck and brought all the rest of their household goods and were staying the week to help them get unpacked and organized. Always when I hang up with Michael on the phone, Tom, he would say "Love you bye" and hang up. Sunday when I talked to him I said "Michael, do you know that I love you?" He said, "Love you too, Mom" but I said, "I know ...but do YOU know that I love you?" He said, "Yes and you know I love you." It wasn't a big thing then, not that out of the ordinary, but it is a big thing to me now.

He complained of a bad headache yesterday afternoon and went in the bedroom to lay down. Shanna's parents were there and Shanna went in to wake him a few hours later and found him on the floor, not breathing. They did CPR until the ambulance arrived and the EMTs did CPR all the way to the hospital. Even the hospital tried for a while, but they couldn't revive him.

There will be an autopsy but we won't know the results until Thursday. My best guess at this point is a cerebral aneurysm which would have been painful as far as the headache but instantaneous once the aneurysm burst. He was only 30, Tom. He and Shanna were working things out and he was happy."