Wednesday, 5/10

That was quite the day yesterday.

I'm still trying to process the news that John Kivela is dead. Like many people around here, I've known John for a long time. Both born into families who owned Marquette auto repair facilities, he once jokingly called me a "traitor" for not going into the family business, then quickly pointed out that my skills lie in an entirely different area.  He always took an interest in what I did for the History Center, showing up for programs when he was in town and sharing a whole bunch of stories, everything from growing up in the Piqua neighborhood of Marquette to why I should be mad at the state of Michigan and not NMU every time every time the school tears down an historic building.  More importantly, he was a champion of Loraine's World War II work, even going so far as to put together proclamations and letters thanking people in Belgium who helped her with her research.

And now he's gone.

I know everyone has their own personal demons to battle. I know that everyone battles those demons the best they can. But when those demons win the ultimate battle, it can shake us to the core, sometimes wondering if there's anything we can do about it and oftentimes making us ask, “What if”?

I can't even imagine what John's family and the people in the immediate circle of his life are going through today, to have your life ripped out by the roots and upended in the most savage of ways. I know that, sadly, it happens more often than it should in this country, but my fervent hope is that as we become more and more aware of mental health issues that it happens less and less.

I also hope that whoever reads this never has to go through the pain and the trauma that the Kivela family is going through today.

I'm sure everyone has a favorite John Kivela story, and I'll share mine, if you don't mind. John, then the city's mayor, was riding with President Obama when he visited Marquette back in 2011, and when the motorcade stopped at Donckers the President bought the two of them lunch. However, because the President was on a tight schedule, they had the lunches boxed up, with the intent to eat them on the way to NMU. They never did get to eat those lunches, which led John to mention several weeks later, with a great deal of laughter, that the President still owed him lunch, and that if need be he'd show up at the White House unannounced to get it

That was John, sadly gone too soon. Best wishes and peaceful thoughts to Sandy, the rest of the Kivela family, and all those who knew him much better than I.

(jim@wmqt.com)