Marlo Spritzer

So much of what I have to say about Michelle has been and will continue to be said by others - her infectious smile, her warm heart, her great talent, and more. When I think of Michelle, I think of all those things but I also think about moments in time that replay in my mind on a loop.

The first time I met Michelle is when she became a member of Field of View in 1994, which also happened to be my first year on staff. Her reputation preceded her, and I already knew how great "Mo" was before she even walked in the door. Soon enough, I would join them in their praises. For one thing, she drove something like four or six hours from New York state to West Chester University to come to Field of View rehearsals every weekend, and without fail, she would get out of her car smiling and ready to go. She was the perfect member too, always giving it her hundred percent and then some, always positive, always smiling, always ready go again. And she could spin like nobody's business. To top it all off, we'd end a twelve-hour rehearsal day, everyone feeling gross and sweaty and tired, and Michelle would bounce off the floor, still just as gorgeous as when she walked in, looking fresh as a daisy!

Needless to say, we were pretty happy when Michelle decided to return to FOV for her age-out in 1995. I'll never forget when we were staging the show and we were shifting from the "thirteens" to what we dubbed the "sex" part of the show. There was no question in our minds who would be the "hot mama" standing victorious, air-smoking her imaginary cigarette, dominating over the rest of the members who were collapsed on the floor. That moment ended up being THE moment that hundreds (maybe thousands?) of people remember from that show, or associate with Michelle as a performer. While she had quite an impact on the audience, she had just as much of an impact on her fellow members, always lifting them up, keeping them going, and even talking them through some of their most

anxious moments. I only heard about some of these moments years later, because Michelle wasn't the kind of member who gossiped about it or sought attention for doing it. She was just there for her friends, those people she shared the floor with.

Fast forward a whole lot of years. Life happened, and for awhile I was away from the activity while I was kickstarting my teaching career and my family in the days before social media when it was a lot easier to lose touch with those people you used to spend so much time with. I often thought of Michelle and occasionally I'd talk to someone who would fill me in on the latest. Eventually, Facebook was a thing, but Michelle didn't have a Facebook, so we'd all catch glimpses through the eyes of her beloved Jeff. She remained elusive to many of us in Pennsylvania for quite awhile.

Then came one DCI East in Allentown, I think the year Michelle's dad was inducted into the Crossmen HOF. We decided to do a fundraiser which recognized the connection between Field of View and Crossmen (many like Michelle had marched both), and alumni of both organizations gathered in the park to spin together. I'll never forget standing in the block, turning around, and seeing Michelle a few people away from me, spinning and having a great time. What a perfect reunion! Leave it to Michelle to mark her return among the FOV alumni by spinning her way into it! She did love color guard after all.

Needless to say, I was pretty darn excited when I heard that Michelle had agreed to join the Field of View design staff for 2015. I'll never forget that moment at the Christmas Camp when Michelle and I ended up in the gym together. I'm pretty sure there was some sort of practice going on but it didn't matter, because we were excited to see each other, and everything stopped for a few minutes so we could hug and say hello and be happy to be in the same space. The thing about Michelle is that she always let you know she was happy to see you, and quite honestly, she was pretty much always happy to see a lot of people! In those moments, when she smiled at you and gave you a hug, it made you feel pretty awesome.

The next time I saw Michelle wasn't until June, when I caught up with Field of View in Brooklyn for the Contemporary Color concert. Most who were there will agree that it was an amazing experience for a lot of reasons. It was for me too, but I won't go into all of that. What I will always remember about those two days, though, is that after all the years I had known Michelle, after all the hours we had spent in gyms and on buses together, that

weekend in Brooklyn was actually the first time that Michelle and I really spent time together. At first it was with the rest of the staff, but then we started hanging out together a little more, and on that first night, we sat together to watch the show while the rest of the staff remained backstage.

On the second day, after being holed up in the Barclay Center due to rehearsals and rain, the bad weather cleared and most of the FOV staff decided we wanted to go outside and go for a walk around the neighborhood. We started out moving as a pack, but before long it became apparent that many in our group wanted to move slower and stop a lot more. As I'm sure you can imagine, Michelle and I were both getting a little antsy; we both wanted to move our feet and cover some distance! So she and I looked at each other and said "Let's go!" and off we went. For the next hour, Michelle and I were on a mission. We walked through side streets with cute houses, checked out the surroundings, and talked a lot. Then all of a sudden, Michelle proclaimed, "I need to find a cheap bag I can take on the plane." Our mission shifted. Now we had a purpose, a challenge, a goal. We bee-lined to to the nearest big shopping center and power walked our way through Target and even a grocery store, strategically scanning aisles, dividing and conquering and comparing notes, not letting any grass grow under our feet. Who was Michelle Owens to let grass grow under her feet, after all? In the end we returned to the Barclays without the desired cheap bag Michelle was hoping to find, but we had spent about an hour together, just the two of us, talking and laughing and trying to achieve one goal. That is my Michelle Hour, the only one I really spent one-on-one with her, and it will always remain special in my memory. You could cover a lot of ground with Michelle in an hour, literally and figuratively, and we did.

She was so full of vitality that day, I was completely shocked to learn of her diagnosis only three months later. And I'm incredibly grateful that fate allowed me to see her one last time, if only for a few minutes, when she just happened to be seated a few rows behind me in the UD Arena at WGI Championships.

Like everyone else, I am grateful to have been included in Michelle's journey for her last year, and her positive attitude has inspired me every day. But she has always inspired me, really, and she will continue to do so for a long time. Michelle Owens has been the kind of person who makes you want to be a better human. I will always admire the way she lived, doing what she loved, with those she loved best, treating everyone with kindness, proving beauty is not just skin deep. Her life was too short, yes, but in that time, she LIVED more than most ever will. The ripple

effects will last for a very long time.

Jeff, you were so lucky to have each other.