A Mother Who Never Gave Up — Help Bobbi and Michael Rebuild After Losing Everything

On the morning of May 6th, 2025, Bobbi Rood lost everything.

Not just her home. Not just her belongings. Everything — the medical equipment, the medications, the supplies, the irreplaceable tools she uses every single day to keep her son Michael alive.

The fire took it all.

But here is what the fire could not take: the love of a mother who has already refused to lose her son once. Who has, in fact, refused to lose him three times.

The Day That Changed Everything

On June 2, 2005, Michael was riding on the pegs of a bicycle when a car traveling 50 miles per hour struck them. His friend, the one riding the bicycle, did not survive.

Michael did — but just barely, and at a cost that no one who hasn't lived it could fully understand.

For five months, Bobbi sat in a hospital watching machines breathe for her son. And then, when the doctors had done all they could do, she brought Michael home — still in a coma — and became his full-time caregiver. His nurse. His advocate. His reason to fight.

Fourteen months after that terrible night, Michael came out of the coma.

Most people would call that a miracle. For Bobbi, it was a beginning.

The Day History Repeated Itself

Eight years ago — on June 2nd, exactly thirteen years to the day of the original accident — a serious medical error at a local hospital put Michael on life support again.

The odds against him were absolute. Doctors gave him zero chance of survival.

Bobbi refused to accept it.

She fought to have Michael airlifted to the University of Michigan, where he spent two weeks in critical care, then moved to the ICU. Again, the medical team prepared her for the worst. Again, Michael survived.

He is still here because his mother never stopped fighting for him.

What a Normal Day Looks Like

Most people don't know what it takes to care for someone with Michael's level of need. Bobbi does — because she does it every single day, with love, precision, and zero days off.

Michael requires a cough assist machine to clear his airway. A cough vest for chest therapy. Suction equipment. Therapy devices. Thousands of dollars in monthly medications. A continuous supply of medical and personal care items that most of us will never need to think about.

Every single piece of that equipment — every supply, every medication, every carefully organized item she has spent nearly twenty years acquiring for her son — was destroyed in the fire on May 6th.

The house is a total loss.

And without replacing Michael's medical equipment and supplies, Bobbi cannot bring him home. She cannot use the insurance funds designated for housing if she cannot first establish the medical environment Michael needs to survive outside of a facility.

She is not just rebuilding a home. She is rebuilding the life-support system that keeps her son alive and at home with the person who loves him most.

The Stuff That Was Just Stuff — And Wasn't

For over twenty years, Michael collected University of Michigan and Detroit Lions memorabilia. It was his joy. His identity. His connection to something bigger than the four walls of his care.

It is all gone now.

Bobbi will be the first to tell you that it's just stuff — that what matters is Michael's life, not his collection. But anyone who has ever watched a loved one fight for their life knows that the things that bring them joy are not just things. They are proof that life is worth living. They are the reason to keep going on the hard days.

Michael's hard days are harder than most of us will ever know. He deserves something to smile about.

Who Is Bobbi Rood?

She is the kind of person who, in the middle of her own crisis, would stop to help a stranger. I went to High School with Bobbi, and know she was always one of the kindest people in our class at Bay City Central. And she's a life long Bay County resident.

Everyone who knows Bobbi says the same thing: she has never once passed up the chance to help someone in need. She gives without being asked. She shows up without being called. She is the person you want in your corner when everything goes wrong.

Right now, everything has gone wrong for her.

And for the first time in her life, Bobbi needs someone to show up for her.

How Your Donation Helps

Every dollar raised goes directly toward-

Replacing Michael's critical medical equipment — cough assist machine, cough vest, suction equipment, and therapy devices, hospital bed.

Replenishing thousands of dollars in medications and ongoing medical supplies.

Restoring Michael's personal care items.

Helping Bobbi establish a safe medical home environment so Michael can come home — and stay home, with the mother who has never once given up on him

A Final Word

Nearly twenty years ago, Bobbi brought her son home from the hospital in a coma and refused to stop believing he would come back to her.

He did.

She has given every day since to making sure he has the life and the care he deserves. She has done it with grace, with strength, and with a generosity of spirit that the people who know her will never forget.

Now it is our turn. Weather your from Bay City, Michigan, or anywhere in the country; Bobbi is one of ours.

Please share this page. Please give what you can. And please help Bobbi bring Michael home.

With Gratitude on behalf of Michael and Bobbi.

Brian Martindale