Dear All,
I had been discussing resorts with one of my colleagues and he directed me to this website this morning. I posted my request, and went onto something else. After I walked away, I decided that this would be one of the better areas to post our story…
On April 17th, 2005, our 18 year old daughter, Michelle was invited to a cottage in northern Michigan for the weekend to help the family open the cottage and enjoy the beautiful spring weekend. Unfortunately, parents cannot predict the future nor can we always be there to protect our children. The host family had purchased two PWC’s in the fall of 2004, and decided on April 17th to turn the keys over to Michelle and her boyfriend for a quick ride around the lake. The two PWC’s were driving side-by-side, when suddenly the boyfriend backed his machine off and began to jump Michelle’s wake. Michelle realized that her boyfriend was not beside her and turned her machine and stopped. The boyfriend hit her wake, went airborne and Michelle’s head to the full force of his machine. Michelle was thrown into the icy water of the lake, unconscious and face down. When the helicopter brought her into the Grand Rapids Hospital, we were greeted by the trauma team, and we were told that our sweet Michelle had sustained massive head injuries, was considered a partial drowning victim, broken neck, and a very bleak prognosis. Michelle was placed on life support until we could get our Minnesota family to Michigan to see her. Michelle was buried in Minnesota, just shortly after her 18th birthday. She was our only child, blonde beautiful hair and a gleaming smile with a heart of gold, planning to study psychology & law at Western Michigan University…I have been reading articles about the dangers of PWC’s, and have also developed a dear relationship with a family from Ann Arbor, Michigan who also lost their daughter on a PWC, after she turned her head to look at something, she ran into a dock and was killed instantly. Please be aware of our tragedies before allowing your children, or friends to borrow your machines. *This was the first time that all 3 of these kids had driven a PWC. Our hearts are broken, and a day doesn’t pass that we don’t relive the tragedy of learning our daughter was being placed in an AEROMed Helicopter, it’s truly the telephone call that parents hope never to receive…
