Michele Newton is the proud mother of three children and two grandchildren. Bethany and Breanne Braddock both are grown and living on their own. Bethany has given Michele the wonderful gift of being a grandmother to Caleb age 4. Breanne is expecting her first child, a little girl in March of 2007. Michele’s youngest, a son named Branden passed away in April of 2002 at the age of 15. Branden had fallen off his skateboard and hit his head on a concrete picnic table. He was hospitalized for 3 days, then discharged. Twelve hours after his discharge from the hospital he told his mother that his head hurt. Another twelve hours later Michele made the difficult decision to remove him from life support. Since Branden’s death, Michele has aggressively advocated for helmet safety and shares her story with other parents. Michele became a Hope Mentor and group facilitator for MISS in April of 2005. Michele states that this is hard but necessary work and does this in honor of her son. “It is my way to continue to mother him”. In addition to Michele’s dedication to healing and education, her work with MISS, and being a parent, she also works full time with mentally ill adults.

Michele lives in Phoenix, AZ and specializes in the death of older children. She has adjusted from her busy life with three busy children and learned to gracefully accept the death of her son and hopes by the work she does in his memory that she is making him proud.

michele@missfoundation.org