For Hale, 'It was love at first sight'

“We really loved each other, and we were supposed to grow old together,” Brian Hale said of his wife, Michelle, who was struck and killed by an SUV on Aug. 24 as she crossed Dayton-Xenia Road in Beavercreek.

Contributed photo “We really loved each other, and we were supposed to grow old together,” Brian Hale said of his wife, Michelle, who was struck and killed by an SUV on Aug. 24 as she crossed Dayton-Xenia Road in Beavercreek.

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Jim Noelker/USAF Marathon

ENLARGE PHOTO

Brian Hale kisses his daughter, Breanna Hale, after completing the United States Air Force half marathon Saturday, Sept. 19, in memory of his wife, Michelle.

Staff photo by Jim Noelker Brian Hale kisses his daughter, Breanna Hale, after completing the United States Air Force half marathon Saturday, Sept. 19, in memory of his wife, Michelle.

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By Tom Archdeacon, Staff Writer Updated 2:43 PM Monday, September 21, 2009

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — It was early one morning nearly four weeks ago — a half an hour before sunrise — and CMSgt. Brian Hale was getting concerned. He hadn’t yet spotted his wife, Michelle.

Both runners, they were training for the U.S. Air Force Marathon which was held Saturday, Sept. 19, at WPAFB. Because they were on different work schedules and would compete at different distances — Brian planned to run the full 26.2 miles, Michelle would do the half marathon — they would start their daily workouts at different times.

She’d begin first and they’d usually pass each other headed in opposite directions about a half-mile from their new Beavercreek home.

But on this morning, Brian had passed that spot and still not seen her. Not realizing she was running extra distance that day, he worried until he finally saw her figure — and the five, blinking LED lights on her reflective wrist band — up ahead as she was about to cross Dayton-Xenia Road from the bike trail at Steadman Lane.

“I was relieved,” Brian said in a quiet voice that quickly disappeared in a wave of welling tears and troubling thoughts.

With a blur of motion and an impact sound that still haunts him, his relief was instantly shattered that Aug. 24 morning when Michelle was hit by an SUV driven by a Beavercreek man.

“I ran to her and was there in the road with her,” he said. “I squeezed her hand and told her we love her, that her kids loved her, that we all loved her and then ...”

He shook his head and finally whispered: “It’s painful to have that moment stamped in your mind forever.”

Motivation for medals

Brian and Michelle, both then in the Air Force, met two decades ago while stationed at Taegu Air Base in Korea.

“She was in personnel and in-processed me,” he said. “She did the main briefing and when I first saw her, I think I knew.

“After we dated awhile, she used to laugh and say I was staring at her that first day. But I teased that I was just paying attention to her briefing. Really, though, it was love at first sight.”

She had been married before and had two small children, Jessica and Michael. Once stateside again, Michelle left the active Air Force, she and Brian married and a couple of years later they had Breanna.

In the following years, Brian was stationed at several bases before coming a year ago to WPAFB, where the family quickly rooted itself in the community:

Michelle got a job on base as a secretary with Air Force Materiel Command. Brian began pursuing his master’s degree at the Air Force Institute of Technology. And Breanna is now a 16-year-old junior at Beavercreek High School, where she’s an honors student and a cheerleader.

The family moved into a new home in Beavercreek in January and five months ago Michelle became a grandmother when Jessica, who lives in Missouri, gave birth to Logan.

“She drove down the day I was released from the hospital and I don’t think she put Logan down once that week she was there,” Jessica laughed. “She liked being called his Bella, not Grandma, but she was just over the moon to have a grandson.

“I’d send her 10 pictures a day so she could watch him grow and she’d send me three or four surprise packages a month with Onesies and toys and shoes for him.”

Although she planned to give this year’s medal to Breanna — just as she’d given the medals from the past two half marathons to Jessica and Michael — Michelle had mentioned to Lt. Gen. Thomas Owen, Commander of the Aeronautical Systems Center at WPAFB — that she’d like to buy a replica medal for Logan, too.

A heart full of love

“My wife and I had five children in the military — Michelle and her four brothers — and they were all over the world in the past 20 or 25 years,” said John Palmer. “In the back of my mind I always feared I might one day get that (numbing) phone call ... But I never thought it would come like this.”

Michelle died that August day from her injuries. Although the driver has not yet been charged, the investigation continues.

Meanwhile the family tries to cope any way it can.

“We really loved each other, and we were supposed to grow old together,” Brian said. “At times this is really unbearable, but I make myself get up every morning for our daughter and now our grandbaby, too. You have to go on with life and try living as best you can.

“It was hard at times to even put on my gym clothes and go outside — I’d pretty much cry the whole time I ran — I wanted to run Saturday.”

He decided he’d do the half marathon instead, seeing it as a way of commemorating his wife and completing her dream of winning a medal for each of the children. He even got permission to wear her No. 4193 race bib.

Jessica, Baby Logan and Michelle’s dad all came into town for the weekend and Friday night the whole family — all wearing pink bracelets in Michelle’s honor — walked the 5K race.

Saturday, they encamped along the marathon course’s final turn where Breanna held a homemade poster that — along with photos of her parents and the message “Run Daddy Run ... I Love You,” — had a heart-breaking reminder.

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