Mrs. Michele Renee Bean

July 29, 1968 - February 18, 2020

As I sit here by the lake and wait for my favorite radio program to come on, Country Gold Saturday Night with Rowdy Yates, I realize that something is missing. How do I condense 35 years into a few lines without boring everybody? So I will tell you how I met my blue eyed Angel. Thirty-five years ago, while living in Grand Junction, Colorado, I was attending Mesa College. The first half of my first year, I spent off campus. My dad said "Son, you really need to live on campus to get the real college experience." I moved into the college dorm the second half of the year. The next year I moved into the apartments on campus with 2 giant football players and a basketball player who would bump his head on the front door every time he walked in. It was the dreaded weekend no college student wanted to hear-"It's your turn to do all of the laundry!" I loaded 8 laundry baskets with the smell of 3.2 beer from The Social Club, stained shirts from Der Wiener-schnitzel,sweat, a giant bottle of bleach and 2 rolls of quarters. I'm sure glad that the laundromat was directly across from the colleges as I feared that I run into the local hazmat team. As I put my quarters into the machine and pulled the knob, I was thinking I was in Vegas as the tiny Tide boxes came out. I stuffed a dozen washers to capacity and beyond and sprinkled my boxes of soap and began pouring the bleach. Back in those days we only had whitey tighties, so I bleached them and then I began bleaching the flannel shirts and Levi's. My eye caught the most beautiful blue-eye girl I had ever seen with a little girl standing next to her laughing at me. She said, "Your roommates are going to probably be mad at you for bleaching their clothes. I said "My mom would always say bleach will get the stains out a leave a fresh scent. Keep in mind that I honestly don't remember doing a load of wash in my life until college. That cute little girl ended up being my blue eyed Angels little sister Lacey. We talked into the evening and when I got back to the apartment, my roommates just laughed (thank goodness), I proposed to that beautiful blue eyed Angel high up in the beautiful mountains of Telluride, Colorado. One of my favorite songs that reminded me of Michele is by Garth Brooks is "If Tomorrow Never Comes". Always thinking that I would be the first to go to heaven, then I remembered that she was on loan from God. Though she went to heaven on Tuesday of this week, I still thank God every day for My Blue Eyed Angel and the three beautiful kids we made together. I thank God for all the love and support from my family and all of my friends in such a difficult time. I send thoughts and prayers to all of Michele's family as well as they have lost a beautiful blue eyed angel as well. As I leaving the hospital with other family members, I looked up in the sky and saw an Angel in the clouds.