Roger LeMieux was born in 1939 with a major birth defect - arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC), which involves joint stiffness and muscle weaknesses found throughout the body at birth. His parents were told by Muskegon-area doctors the best thing to do was to take him home and keep him comfortable until he died.
Mom and Dad did not take that advice, instead taking their son to the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor. While he’s never been able to walk and has endured over 30 operations, Roger will celebrate his 85th birthday this year.
He has more than once spent nine months at the U of M hospital, and in all has been there more times than he can remember, but he still considers himself lucky.
“I was rebuilt from the waist down, but many people with AMC have their entire body affected,” LeMieux said.
When Roger got his first pair of crutches as a tot, the doctors in Ann Arbor told his parents, “He will fall down, but don’t pick him up. He’ll learn how to get up on his own and will grow up not being dependent on others.” They also said he would be called names by others, but to just ignore them. Those were important lessons in life and have served him well.
“Nothing has stopped me to this day,” he said.
Roger’s mom taught third grade at Nims School in Lakeside. She home-taught him through the third grade. Then he attended the Handicapped Class at the Nelson School. Here all children with special needs, kindergarten through grade eight, were taught in the same room. They were kept separate from other students.
Next, he entered Muskegon High School as a sophomore, skipping ninth grade. But, he said, “They were not ready for me. There were lots of stairs and not much time between classes. They would not let me out of class five minutes early so I could beat the rush.”
After two days, he had a change of schools. He passed all the entry tests and went from eighth grade to starting college. He attended Muskegon Business College in downtown Muskegon for two years. The school was owned by the Jewel family and he considered them “real jewels.”
“They were very accommodating there. At times, someone would carry me up and down the stairs.”
He then began working for Mona Shores School System in accounting and food service. At night, he took classes in Silk and Fresh Flower Arranging nearby. Then, he opened his own business: Artistry in Silk Flower Design by Roger, working out of his home “on the side.” After a year, he was so busy he had to give that up. He worked 12 years at the school but had to retire in the early 1960s, because of his health.
“Then I got bored and had to find something to keep me busy,” he said.
He solved that problem by volunteering to work the front desk at the Muskegon YMCA.
This was his job for 30 years. For 27 of those years, he also volunteered at the Hackley Hospital working in the gift shop.
When Muskegon Community College bought the Y, a director from Chicago showed up and decided to get rid of all the volunteers. That did not go over well with Roger.
“I was the last volunteer to be gotten rid of and I asked the director if she knew about the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990).
She said, “No.”
She closed the door to her office and questioned Roger. She asked if he was planning to sue them, and he said he would. Within a few minutes, he was reinstated in his job.
“A person shouldn’t have to do things like this. This country was built on volunteerism,” he added. “I don’t need more money. I get paid with gratitude. I’m a people person. I stayed there as a volunteer.”
In 1982, Roger was unemployed and decided he’d like to be a radio announcer. On a Friday, with WKJR-AM on his car radio, he drove around listening to the signal get stronger until he found the recently relocated station. He told the receptionist he would like to apply for an on-air position. The station manager gave him some teletyped copy to read out loud. He passed the test.
On Monday, he reread the copy again and was hired. For the next five and a half years, his voice was heard early Sunday evenings, from Norton Shores, on the AM station and later at night on WABM-FM.
He met Pastor Bill Uetricht of the First Lutheran Church of North Muskegon while working at the Y, telling him he’d come to the church if they had a vehicle he could ride in.
“When do you want to be picked up?” the pastor asked.
The church had recently purchased a bus with an assist lift.
Roger has attended the church regularly for the past 10 years. He trains each new bus driver how to properly use the wheelchair tiedowns, how the rear seats must be folded up to make room for him and how the lift operates.
He has lived in the Village at Park Terrace in Muskegon for the past 13 years. When first there, he lived on the second floor. Thinking about what his situation might be in a power outage, he arranged to get an apartment on the ground floor.
The bus now stops for him and five or six other people from the building. Uetricht kids him about becoming an evangelist.
While keeping busy, Roger also did a lot of traveling. He loves flying to places but doesn’t care for using the railroad. During a Y convention in Helsinki, Finland, he visited an area where his mother’s parents came from. He also visited Quebec, Canada to see where his dad’s parents grew up. He and his parents visited his aunt and uncle, a retired Naval officer, 17 times in San Diego. He went to Hawaii in 1998 and was surprised to find how far behind they were in implementing ADA regulations.
He owned four cars during his driving days. The first car was a 1960 Mercury. Matson Oldsmobile employees installed the hand controls produced by Gresham Driving Aids of Detroit. There was no one to teach him how to operate them, so he learned on his own. There was a control lever for his left hand which he pulled back to accelerate and pushed it forward to stop, while steering with his right hand. One day, while driving with his dad, the lever broke.
“What are you going to do now?” his dad asked.
“I reached back and got one of my crutches to push the accelerator and brake pedal well enough to get home.”
He drove his last car, a 1999 Buick LeSabre, over 140,000 miles. It was the first car he had with power steering and brakes. He did have some exciting moments for himself and a salesperson. It took a little while to get used to the minimum effort required with the power assists.
Due to blood circulation issues, he had to have his right leg amputated in 2021. This was operation number 32. His driving is now done in an electric-powered wheelchair, which he got with help from his doctors and the Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Center. The chair is very expensive and weighs 400 pounds empty.
Once a year, the batteries need to be replaced and a “house call” for the service costs $140. The chair has an odometer, so he can keep track of mileage. He has established a one-mile circular route around the neighborhood, where he enjoys seeing the wild game and other people while silently riding along the sidewalks. The curb cutaways required by the ADA makes this much easier.
“You can do anything you want, if you are determined,” he says. “I enjoy life.”
