During a long phone conversation with Dametrius "Meechie" Walker in August as he had detailed his osteoscarcoma diagnosed in 2020 that eventually forced doctors to amputate his left leg, the cancer that had spread to his lungs and the tumor growing on his jaw, his voice sounded strong.
Despite every possible way his body was defying him, this 18-year-old kid, who, a couple of years ago, was a tight end at Muskegon High and receiving Division I football scholarship offers and who had been told by doctors in January he wouldn't live beyond six months, was hopeful that he would thrive and take care of his toddler son, Kymere.
"People tell me I have a heart of a lion," Meechie told me during that conversation, "and that if they just had a little bit of what I have, they would be unstoppable."
Thinking about those words make his death, announced Friday on the Muskegon High football social media account, harder for me to accept. During that interview, he shared that he thought about death, and as I listened to him speak, for the first time in my professional life, I found myself weeping. When I arrived home, I couldn't stop talking about this young man whose story had moved me to tears.
From that day on, I prayed every night for Meechie.
People who follow Michigan football know his story by now. The team had become aware of Meechie, his cancer and his unfulfilled football dreams through the Jo Elyn Nyman Anchors Program for Children at Hospice of Michigan and Arbor Hospice. He was invited to the building during preseason camp, and in a moment captured on video, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, with the players all around him on the field, set up a run play and pushed Meechie in his wheelchair into the end zone for his first career touchdown.
Probably like many others, it was impossible not to watch that video over and over just to see the sheer joy on the face of this young man who was a stranger to me until we communicated by phone on Aug. 17. We talked that day about his family, his son, his love of football, cancer and also whether he thought about dying.
"All the time," Meechie said. "Ever since the doctor told me that (in January). You think, everything I was doing, that I won't do it for much longer. Just laughing with the family."
He pushed to keep finding some way to get this cancer out of his body.
"I have a son that I want to notice what I'm doing so when he gets older, he knows how strong of a person I was and how strong he could be," Walker said. "I do it for my family."
By that point, belief set in for me that he would somehow beat this death sentence. Denial, of course. But in a hopeful moment, I asked when he would celebrate his next birthday.
"I turn 19 March 2," Walker said, his voice upbeat. "Me and Dr. Seuss have the same birthday."
That he would mention Dr. Seuss made me smile and reminded me again that 18 is not so far removed from childhood. As he told me that day, "People aren't supposed to be going through this at so young an age."
We stayed in touch from that moment on via text messages. My story about Meechie ran in The Detroit News on Aug. 30. Meechie texted me and said, "This one made me cry right here." A week later he texted he had missed attending Michigan's season opener Sept. 3 because he had a collapsed lung and had surgery but hoped to make the game on Sept. 10, "because that's who I am and I owe my guys that."
The Michigan players had become his "guys" and attending a game became an all-important goal for him. Meechie was featured in a Fox Sports piece Sept. 24, the day Michigan played Maryland, when he was able to finally attend a game. The Wolverines dedicated the win to him.
It was ESPN reporter Gene Wojciechowski's outstanding piece on Meechie that aired on Oct. 15, the day of the Penn State game, that swirled emotions again. It was in the post-game interview room that day that I finally met Meechie, who was seated in his wheelchair and was carrying the game ball he had just been presented by Harbaugh.
We shook hands, we talked, and the reality set in. He was so much thinner than he had been in August. He told me he was tired a lot. He looked weak and weary. But he kept smiling.
"We Will definitely meet up again!!" he texted me the next day.
My weekly texts to Meechie to check in on him continued.
"I'm doing alright I'm definitely fighting body is just going thru so much transitions but I'm never giving up!" Meechie wrote on Nov. 11 and finished the message with the prayer hands emoji.
The day before Thanksgiving, I texted Meechie and wished him and his family a Happy Thanksgiving and told him I felt grateful to have met him.
Four days later on Nov. 27, he texted.
"I'm grateful for you too & you definitely will see me again," he wrote.
It was the last text I would receive from him. No one knows who will leave a lasting impression on their lives. Meechie has for me.
Until we see each other again, rest easy, Meechie.
