April Otwell
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In Loving Memory...

7/18/2018

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Thursday, July 12 was a very sad day for my family. Michael Judd Brown, the cousin I call MJ, passed away in a terrible accident. He was working on a bridge and fell from it, killing him instantly. MJ was twenty eight year old with a beautiful wife and a little girl that will turn 2 in October. We laid him to rest on Monday July 16. It’s been an extreme emotional roller coaster because MJ is Jessica’s brother and Mike’s son. You can imagine how horrid the last few days have been! It’s so sad.MJ was down from his house in Hebert, Louisiana the weekend before he got killed. I can still hear him coming into my building as I talked to my boyfriend Nomir on the phone. The smile on his face and his laughter will forever be with me. We grew up together and were always close. We became even closer once I started living with Jessa. I told him all my secrets that I could not tell anyone else and he understood that in order to enjoy this life to its fullest there’s going to be mistakes made. We bonded over a few beers a couple of times and let me tell you I drank way too much which for me is like three beers. He laughed at me drunk until he nearly peed on himself. These are the memories that I will cherish forever. I thought I’d get more time with him but unfortunately God had other plans.
MJ had hurt his back a few weeks before his death that left him humped over, which he believed that he slipped some disks or had bulging disks. All I can think is that the injury could have resulted in paralysis and it was in his lower back so he would have been paralyzed from the waist down. If you knew MJ you know he would not have been able to handle this life. If you didn’t know him, MJ was an outdoorsman that loved to spend the majority of his free time either hunting or fishing. If his injury led to becoming a paraplegic I don’t think he would have had the strength that so many of us survivors have to continue living. I believe God took him before his injury became worse. We will all miss him but he’s with my mom and everybody else that has gone before us. We will keep his memory going for the beautiful little girl he leaves behind. She’s only about to be two. She’s too young that she’s not going to remember him once she’s older.
A day after he passed away my uncle Harvey, who’s wife died shortly after my mom, came to pay his respects and told my uncle Mike, MJ’s grandfather, a chilling story. He said, “I was sitting down in my chair as out of the blue clear as day I heard Sue Baby[his wife] say don’t worry about the boy. We got him up here with us.” It’s comforting for my family because of the manner of death, I cannot say more because there’s an investigation going on. I can say he was dead before he actually fell so the worry about what he must have felt as he was falling the 35-40 feet is no longer a worry.
Please keep my family in your prayers as we all heal from this tragic death and most of all for his wife Kelly and his little girl Addison.
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    Paralyzed from the neck down after an ATV rollover at 14, April Otwell is beating the odds the doctors gave her. She's a blogger, fantasy writer, college student, sugar glider guardian and spinal cord injury survivor.  She's even writing her first fiction novel!

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