This website was created in memory of our precious daughter, sister, friend...loved one;
Michelle Annette Edwards.
She was born in Brownwood, Texas on
December 11, 1984.
She went to be with her Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ on June 26, 2005

while in Acapulco Mexico.
She was 20 1/2  

Dani and Michelle - enjoying Michelle's last St. Patty's celebration in March 2005

Michelle truly celebrated life, and made the most of every day.  

I love my beautiful Valentines!!

 (my daughters)

Michelle with her paternal great grandpa Leech. She was the only great grandchild he met, as he died just a week after this pic was taken.

His birthday is on Valentine's Day

 Michelle loved the snow - we don't see much of it in Texas

Christy, Mom, & Michelle on

a ski trip in New Mexico

Congratulations to the recipient of the 4th annual Michelle Annette Edwards Memorial Scholarship. Her name is Kimberly Jones.  She is from Bedias, Texas. She wants to be a Victim's Advocate; a similar career interest as Michelle. Kathy (Michelle's mom) presented the scholarship to her at the Sam Houston State University College of Criminal Justice Honors Convocation on April 23, 2009.

Also on hand for emotional support was Kathy's boyfriend, Mark Crowder.

Kathy, Kimberly, Michelle's plaque on the wall, and Mark

Thanks to the family of Brent Bowden for this graphic!

I love what it says 

Thank God for our faith and courage

to make it through one day at a time

The background song is

a new release from Jeremy Camp -

"There will be a day"

Jeremy Camp is an amazing performer.

We saw him Nov 1st '09 and had 2nd row seats!

Thank you Joyce Sullivan -

Samantha's mom,

for this beautiful graphic you made!

and thank you Joyce Sullivan for

this one too!!

 Michelle loved gerber daisies, butterflies, and the color pink. She had butterflies all over her apartment. She hung them over each door, had them framed on walls and on tables, and had them on jewelry , purses, and T-shirts! It comforts us a lot to see big butterflies fly right up close. It is sort of a reminder that she is now "free as a butterfly".

 Michelle would have been so proud of her boyfriend Chris Fox for graduating from Sam Houston State University

May 17, 2008

Way to go Chris!

Michelle's mom, Chris, and Michelle's sister Christy

Michelle's little sister turned 21 on May 19th, '08 - the age Michelle never reached

Mom and Christy in Abilene, Tx

Thank you Cindy, my friend and bereaved mom of B.J., Wayne and Buck Outlaw http://bjoutlawii.memory-of.com



(Time stands still for us - since you've been gone)





Michelle, 

Your light will always shine
    





If you visit our site & wish to pass on your prayers and thoughts, please light a candle, or write a tribute/ condolence message.  This is such a comfort to us.
God bless you as you grieve the loss in your life as well.
Our children are our greatest gift,
 and only God could love them more than we do.

Michelle lived her life to the fullest every day, and anyone who met her would find out she had a rare energy and spirit about her! - aunt Debi


(Thank you Christine, mom to baby Hendryx)


She would do most anything on a dare, and 
would enjoy 'pushing the limit' whenever possible. This allowed her to be a leader and to succeed at most things she did. Her only fears were of failure and getting caught !! She seemed to have a great time at whatever she was doing. - mom

She could get just about anything with that smile - Chris Fox

Michelle and her boyfriend Chris Fox


      

Michelle was a daring, witty, intelligent, kind-hearted young lady. She would do anything for a friend. She was one of the most determined and hard working people anyone had met. If you wanted to see her 'get after it', you only had to tell her it couldn't be done!!

The last time we (her family) saw Michelle was the night of Christy's (her sister) high school graduation - Friday, May 27th, 2005. Christy spent the night with friends, and I (mom) left early the next morning for niece Melissa's graduation in another town. Michelle drove that afternoon back to her university town (Huntsville, TX) about 5 hrs. away. She spent time that night with her boyfriend Chris Fox and his family as they celebrated the graduation of Chris' brother, Ryan.


click on picture

Michelle spent the next few days getting ready to leave with her university's study abroad program on June 2nd. The program lasted from June 2nd to June 29th and was in Puebla, Mexico on the campus of Iboamericana Universidad.

Michelle had signed up to live with a family there instead of staying at the Holiday Inn. This would allow her to learn the culture and the language better. She emailed and called home frequently while she was gone. Even though she was homesick for her boyfriend, her cat Cooper, and her friends and family, her travel companions said she was having a blast. She loved her 'family' in Puebla, and often talked about her 'brother' Alfredo, who spoke good English and took her lots of places.



The last weekend of the VERY structured study abroad program allowed the students to have a break, so they could go wherever they wanted to go. Michelle wanted to go to Acapulco, even though it was a long bus trip away. She arranged the trip with several of the other students, and emailed me to my desk at work several times before sending her last one. Below is her last email to me before that trip:

From: MichelleEdwards             To: kathyedwards            
Thurs. 06/23/2005  11:57 AM    Subject  Re: Acapulco!

yo madre, now there are 13 of us going to acapulco. it is going to be awesome!! 3 of us are leaving today because 6 and a half hours on a bus is too much if we are just going to stay one day. so our bus leaves at 10 tonight and will get to acapulco around 5am. fun fun huh? anyways, we come back sunday, review on monday, final on tue, and leave for home on wed. so the rest of our time here will go by fast!!! yey. well, i will talk to u later.
I love you, chelle


click on picture
 


I received a phone call early on Sunday morning. June 26th (about 7:00am) from one of the professors at the Puebla campus, asking if I was Michelle Edwards' mother. I immediately felt something was very wrong, since I knew she was in Acapulco & her bus didn't leave until 9:30 am. He said she had been hit by a car, and was in critical condition. He gave me the hospital name and said I needed to call and give them permission to airflight her to Mexico City. I called my parents before doing anything else, so they could start praying. They live 75 miles away.

By the time I got through to the hospital, her travel companion Danielle San Miguel said she was not stable enough to transport; she had extensive head trauma, and was not supposed to make it much longer. She had been hit by a taxi while crossing the busy road in front of their hotel (no stop lights or crosswalks). A bus had stopped to wave Michelle across the road, and neither of them had seen the speeding taxi coming up from behind. It was a hit and run.  She never knew what hit her, and was knocked uncounscious immediately.

I started making phone calls to others who could come help me make travel plans to get to Acapulco. Christy woke up and saw that instead of going to church, there was something very wrong. I can't even remember what I told her but I told her it was bad, and that it would be a miracle for her to survive, especially in a foreign hospital. We were both in such shock.

Michelle's other travel companion, Mark Thibodeaux, who rode with her in the ambulance, was the one who later told me so sadly on the phone that Michelle had died at 8:45 am.


Christy and I, along with my father Charles Love, flew down to Acapulco that morning, arriving at 10:30 pm. We were met at the airport by the professor who coordinated the study abroad program for SHSU (Frieda). She had also been Michelle's Spanish professor at Puebla.  She had our taxi driver take us right past the accident site to the funeral home. The driver then went to pick up the 5 students who had shared a room with Michelle. He brought them to the funeral home to see us before they took a 1:00 am bus back to Puebla. It was all too unreal to us. It was like an out of body experience. Christy and I couldn't breathe or think very well.

We were glad to meet the precious students that had suffered so greatly at the death of their friend on that horrible day. They did what a parent or other adult should have had to endure, yet they did it so bravely. Mark, Danielle, Annette, Summer, and Jonathan all hugged us and we cried together. I asked them to tell me about the fun things they had done there, and they told us of so many great memories they had made that weekend with Michelle as their 'leader'.

Over the next 2 days, we went through all the legal steps necessary to bring Michelle home for her funeral, which was held that Friday, July 1st. We had many back home praying for us, and everything went smoothly. The American Consulate and Frieda helped so much, especially since they are both bilingual.

As we have grieved through these months, we have stayed in touch with Michelle's friends and travel companions back in Huntsville. When we went down to move out her apartment, etc. Christy and I spent time with them. We have also had a lot of her Brownwood friends staying in touch with us. We have found a lot of comfort in reliving memories of Michelle together with the friends and family she loved so much. 

She brought all of us so much joy, and we feel as though we lost a part of ourselves when she departed this earth. 



*************************************
Sam Houston Student Paper, June 28th, 2005:

SHSU Student Killed in Mexico 

Michelle Edwards, a 20-year-old junior criminal justice major from Brownwood, was killed in an auto-pedestrian accident in Acapulco early Sunday morning.

Edwards was taking a Spanish class through SHSU's Puebla Field School. Approximately 50 Sam Houston students and faculty are participating in the program which is being held June 2-29.
With the school session coming to an end this week, students were given a free weekend for touring and sightseeing before returning to Texas, and Edwards had traveled with a group to Acapulco.
According to University officials who were in Acapulco, she was struck by a vehicle in front of their hotel as she was trying to cross the street.

"Michelle was an intelligent, wonderful young lady," said program director Frieda Koeninger, who was in Acapulco with the Edwards family Monday morning. "She was making good grades in my Spanish course and was an enthusiastic participant in the Puebla Field School.

"This is a tragic loss of a young life," she continued. "Our hearts go out to the Edwards family."

The field school is a yearly program offered each summer during the first summer session. Sam Houston State University faculty members teach a variety of classes on the campus of Universidad Iberoamericana


We had a 'celebration of her life' on December 16, 2005, to commemorate what would have been her 21st birthday (Dec. 11).


(click on pictures)

Tax deductible donations can be made to the Michelle Annette Edwards Memorial scholarship fund set up at Sam Houston State University (SHSU), University Advancement Office, Box 2537, Huntsville, TX 77341-2537. Make check payable to “SHSU” – Michelle Annette Edwards Memorial 




Thank you Diane, mother of Nicky White


  The background music is 
"There Will Be a Day" by Jeremy Camp. 

Mark took mom and Christy to see Jeremy Camp on Nov. 1st, 2009.  He is an amazing performer, and only wants to glorify God. He lost his young wife to cancer, so sings from his heart.

"There Will Be A Day" is based on the same Bible verse we used on Michelle's headstone.