Michael Whisenant

I met Michael in the 6th grade when my family moved from Guntersville to Union Grove.  Union Grove School was a very small school then.  There wasn't a popular crowd and a non popular crowd.  We were all equals and good friends.  I remember that Michael was a good student.  

My Mom wanted all of her kids to be in the band so I went to Arab Jr. High in the 8th grade.  I lost contact with most of my friends from the Grove because they didn't come on to Arab until the 10th grade.  After high school graduation we all went our separate ways and Michael joined the Navy.  I remember one Christmas in either 1978 or 1979 Michael came home on leave and stayed with Nickey and Pam, who were married then.  The four of us struck out to Huntsville on a Saturday night when it was extremely cold.  Michael, a very generous person, paid for all our meals.  On the way home Nickey was driving (a car we had borrowed from Pam's Daddy) and the roads were icing over.  Nick ran off the road at dead man's curve on the Union Grove Road.  That was before cell phones and we had to depend on the kindness of strangers.  (Pam should have been driving because she was the only one not drinking.)

After the Navy Michael worked for Mr. Lindsey down in Parches Cove.  It was during this time that Michael became withdrawn and then, unfortunately, reclusive and paranoid. One day he completely disappeared off the radar.  Pam, Nickey, Shannon Parker, and I wondered for decades what happened to him.  We missed him.  He was a good person.

On December 14, 2014 Donna Clemons Collins found out through Facebook that Michael had died.  We were shocked to discover he had been living in Dadeville, Alabama all these years where he worked as a heavy equpment operator.  We were delighted to find out he had lived a happy life and that he had a wife, Cheryl, and a step-daughter, Catlin, who adored him.  Catlin started a Facebook page titled:  RIP Mike Whisenant.  Take a look.  It will warm your heart.

We loved you my Grove friend, and we look forward to seeing you on the other side.  Written by Sandra Gibson-Hester