Brother calls Shirley Melinda Meeks, who was killed at Reed Manor apartment ...
31.12.69
Soft-spoken and sweet, Shirley Melinda Meeks was a former teacher who spent much of her time at her sewing machine, her brother said.
“She would make clothes for the whole family,” said John Meeks, 46, of Albion.
He called his sister kind-hearted, pleasant and positive. Every Sunday, she went to church, he said.
News of her gruesome death Saturday , allegedly at the hands of her Reed Manor neighbor, Leo Joseph Kwaske, 46, was devastating, Meeks said.
“It was painful. It was painful to hear how she was killed. It was disturbing,” Meeks said.
Jackson police have not said what caused Shirley Meeks' death because they were awaiting a final autopsy report, but John Meeks was told his sister was bludgeoned to death with a hammer. She died Saturday in her home at Reed Manor, a subsidized apartment complex on Steward Avenue.
“I don’t think it was really him. I think it had to be something else working in him to do what he did,” John Meeks said of Kwaske, whom he did not know. He had never seen or heard of him before his sister's death.
Source: The Jackson Citizen Patriot - MLive.com
Halloween costumes for kids: Belleville mom makes them all -- from Lamb Chop ...
31.12.69
"No one saw it," said Shannon. "She was only four days old. It was pretty much for the family's benefit."
Like most things the Belleville mom does.
This time of year, she sews Halloween costumes.
Son Eric, 4, will be Curious George in space.
"He loves Curious George. He will be an astronaut from the neck down and a monkey from the neck up."
Two Sundays before Halloween, the monkey part was still a piece of hairy, brown fabric.
"This time of the month, I start getting panicky," Shannon said, helping Eric try on a shiny, white one-piece space suit with black trim and a NASA patch.
"My husband (Mike) is a big help. He will take the kids to the park for an hour or the in-laws will watch the kids so I can sew for a few hours, and I sew when they go to bed at night."
Sure, it would be easier to buy costumes, but Shannon likes the challenge, the originality and the fun of it.
Last year, Lucy was cute, fleecy Lamb Chop, a sock puppet.
Source: Belleville News Democrat
