REAL PEOPLE/Hello UP THERE
Keeping a Young Man’s Memory Alive
How Mike Witmer’s neighborly holiday game became an enduring tribute
Witmer bids an annual hello to a departed neighbor.
OUR CHRISTMAS LIGHTS were already up when we heard Kevin would be coming home for the holidays. Kevin was a friend of my daughter’s from the neighborhood swim team, and at age 11, he had been hospitalized with cancer. He was just a really cool kid—scrawny and athletic, the kind of guy who loved to make people laugh. I decided to write “Get Well Kevin” in lights, and my wife told Kevin’s folks to swing through our court on their way home from the hospital.
Kevin loved the display, and he asked his mom, “Do you think Mr. Witmer will put my name in lights every year?” When I heard about that, my heart was crushed, and I thought, Well, how could I not? Kevin’s cancer went into remission, but every year, I would hide the words “Hi” and “Kevin” in my display for him to find. It was like a kind of Where’s Waldo? game between us.
Sadly, the cancer eventually returned, and in 2010, Kevin died at the age of 19. His parents asked me to speak at his funeral, and I shared a bit about the lights and our game. I told the mourners I’d be making my “Hi Kevin” sign bigger that year, so that Kevin would be able to see it from heaven. I built the sign and put it on the garage roof, facing the sky. And it has been there every Christmas ever since.
Over time, the lights have gotten some attention. I’ve had people reach out to me on Facebook to say that they had lost a Kevin, too, and they wanted to adopt my lights as a hi to their Kevin in heaven. That really touches me.
In the beginning, my annual “Hi Kevin” was just a silly gesture to a really nice kid who had been through some tough times. But it has been my honor to keep the salute going for his friends and family, and for anyone else who has a Kevin to remember. When you do someone a kindness, even if it’s very small, you never know how much it’s going to mean. —As told to Robin Westen
Mike Witmer, 57, is a land surveyor in Gaithersburg, Maryland.