Michael Meagher made friends everywhere he went.
“Even if we went somewhere for a half hour, to a park or something, he made friends, and he really loved his friends,” said Melissa Meagher, Michael’s mother. “One time, I picked him up, and somebody made him this coloring or drawing, and he was like, ‘Don’t lose that, Mom. One of my friends made that for me.’ He just cherished everything about his friends.”
Michael died tragically in January in a fatal shooting in Wisconsin. He was 8 years old and a second grader at Brook Park Elementary School in LaGrange Park, though he lived with his family in Brookfield.
Michael is survived by his mother, father Jesse Chaniewski, grandfather William Meagher, grandmother Christine Meagher, older sisters Marissa, 26, and Madeline Meagher, 13, and Marissa’s young children Symphony and Cuono.
In a Feb. 26 interview with the Landmark, Melissa, Christine and William Meagher recalled the impact Michael had on those around him. Melissa Meagher said Michael will be missed by his best friends Jaxon and Elliot and close friends AJ, Axel, Greyson, Margo, James and Vinny.
“He met Jaxon two years ago, all of a sudden. [His family] must have just moved in, and they hit it off right away,” she said. “He met him through another friend who brought him over on his block and introduced them. He was like, ‘That was it. We were just best friends.’ He was in our yard always for that whole summer, and then he was so excited for Mike’s first day at Brook Park.
“He comes over still, and I told him, ‘You and Michael really had such a special friendship. Not everybody has friendships like that,’” she added. “They would do anything for each other. Jaxon said recently, ‘I’d fight the strongest man in the world if I had to to protect Michael.’”
Melissa Meagher said her son was a funny, silly boy who would spread joy wherever he was.
“He had a fantastic sense of humor and an awesome laugh, and he brightened up many days with his smile,” Melissa Meagher said. She said his favorite music artists were Imagine Dragons and Juice WRLD, and he liked to dance — especially moves like the griddy and even twerking.
“We did a TikTok video for Christmas, and my daughters and I all followed the TikTok video, and then at the end, of course, little goofy. ‘Boom, boom.’ He twerked just a little bit instead of whatever it was, but it just made our family, because it was totally him and totally us,” she said.
Melissa Meagher said both of her daughters had a special bond with Michael. He and his best friends often played make believe or video games with his middle sister, Madeline, while his older sister, Marissa, called him her “Gemini pal” — despite an 18-year age gap, their birthdays are just one week apart on the calendar, Melissa said.
“Michael was a young uncle, but he adored his niece and nephew. He would run across a park to save Symphony from danger or hold her in the pool so she’d be safe,” she added. “When Cuono was born, he was so excited to have a nephew, another boy, because there’s so many females. He promised him when he held him that he would protect him and teach him sports, so I’m going to do that for Michael now.”
She said Michael’s favorite holidays were Christmas and Halloween, and he was already looking forward to celebrating his birthday in June at Ehlert Park, where he did so every year. This year, Melissa and her family plan to celebrate Michael’s with Jaxon to remember him together. Melissa, an art teacher, said Michael was looking forward to starting art classes at school before he died and enjoyed other assignments like keeping a weekly journal.
She said the Brookfield community felt Michael’s loss and has been working to remember him by tying blue ribbons around trees in town. Thanks to a GoFundMe fundraiser posted by a family friend, the Meaghers received nearly $25,000 for Michael’s funeral services. Melissa said strangers have left her notes or gifts on her family’s front porch to commemorate Michael, but two women, Mary Sorensen and Garet Czernek, took it a step further.
“They did meals for us for 30 days, and all these families gave us dinner, or they bought us food from out and delivered it to our house every day, and we’re so appreciative of it,” she said. “When you’re grieving like that, you don’t even think of food, but there’s something about them delivering it, and how much they all loved us and were showing us support, that, actually, you feel like eating something.”
Melissa Meagher said she and her daughters have taken things “one day at a time” and supported each other through their shared grief since Michael died.
“It’s unbearable,” she said. “You wouldn’t believe the amount of pain. I can’t explain it in words. A part of me died, too, that day. I’ll never be the same without him.”
“It’s like your heart aches forever,” Christine Meagher added.
But the Meaghers are choosing to remember Michael as the bright, bubbly boy everyone knew him to be.
“I would be sitting in the yard, and kids would come walking up or riding up on their bicycles, and they’d go … ‘Is Michael here?’ I didn’t even know who these kids were,” William Meagher said. “It was constant. Every day, and it was always somebody new. In his eight years of life, he touched more hearts and more people than I did in my 73 years. Honest to God, he just touched so many people.”