Cary parents mourn teen killed returning to PADS shelter in Woodstock

CARY – Curt and Judy Michols always thought their son Chris would come home.

He'd matured in the five months he spent in transitional housing programs for the homeless in Woodstock. He was avoiding marijuana, alcohol and the impulsive decisions that had gotten him into some trouble in the past. By Curt and Judy's accounts, Chris would be ready to return to their Cary home before Christmas.

“The last couple weeks we felt he was really starting to get it and turn a corner,” Curt Michols said. “He wasn’t this bad kid, but he was turning a corner with, ‘I’ve really got to get my act together and get growing.’ ”

Chris, 18, was on his way to his temporary home, the Pioneer Center for Human Services' PADS shelter on Kishwaukee Valley Road, on Sept. 20 when he was struck by a work van crossing Route 14. He died two hours later at Centegra Hospital – Woodstock.

A visitation for Chris will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at Saints Peter and Paul Church, 410 First St., Cary. A funeral Mass celebration will follow at 11 a.m.

“On one hand, yes, he’s in a better place. Yes, he’s in heaven. Yes, he’s not feeling any pain,” Judy Michols said, wearing a bracelet that used to loop around her son’s wrist with the words “share beauty, spread hope.”

“But you know what? I am so mad because for the struggles he went through and the anxiety and the challenges he faced and this big heart of his. ... It’s almost like, how unfair? Why can’t he bear the fruits of his labors?”

A 2015 graduate of Cary-Grove High School, Chris chose to live in Pioneer Center housing because of mental and emotional struggles that surfaced his sophomore year. The PADS shelter had been Chris’ home since late August after he was moved from the Clay Group Home in Woodstock, where he had lived since April, his parents said.

Chris was making grocery lists and asking for things instead of demanding them. He told his parents he attended group therapy and connected with others in transitional housing.

“From what we’ve heard he was a very, very well-liked young man and a vivacious personality,” said Christin Kruse, Pioneer Center’s chief development officer.

Chris was well-known around the Cary neighborhood where he grew up. He was active in Scouts from the time he was in second grade at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic School through his senior year at Haber Oaks alternative school. He volunteered for a number of causes.

But in his teenage years, Chris’ kindness was overshadowed and sometimes taken advantage of by people pretending to be his friends, his parents recalled. There were arguments and sometimes the police got involved, his parents said.

Despite the battles, those close to him said Chris maintained a conscience.

“He was a kid who was trying to fit in and find his place,” Curt Michols said. “I think he knew the right things, and he would try to do them, but he didn’t always. He really wanted to help himself.”

Chris would often say he didn’t know why he was doing the things that caused him and his family strife, neighbor Diana Kudsk said. Her son Garrett grew up with Chris. They had taken him on a family vacation a few years ago. He was such a fixture in their home, Chris called Diana his second mom.

“I can’t think of a single person who wasn’t shocked and devastated by it,” Kudsk said. “He would walk up and say ‘hi’ and smile and you couldn’t help but smile back.”

The love others felt for Chris was reinforced the Monday after he died. Curt and Judy had returned from Iowa City, where they had gone to tell their 21-year-old son, Andy, that Chris had died. When they pulled into the driveway, they noticed candles glowing on the porch.

They were gifts left by friends also mourning Chris.

In the days that followed, flowers and angel statues appeared. Curt and Judy started to feel hope his life and death would help other people. They also found some solace in the thought that the night he was killed he was headed to the shelter to make it home by curfew. He was trying to follow the rules.

Their minds drifted to their last interaction with Chris the Sunday he died. Chris seemed to have a plan for life that didn’t have to be mandated by his parents.

He spoke about an apartment, job and a possible career in social work.

He hugged them and said, “I love you.”

“I think it’s a loss to the world,” Judy Michols said. “I think of the things Chris could do. Helping others just with his kind, sweet heart and having gone through the things he’s gone through. I think that in turn he would want to turn around and be that person to help others.”