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© St. Petersburg Times, published December 11, 2001
He lies in the coffin, looking like a doll, in crisp denim overalls and a blue hat.
The little boy with the fair hair is surrounded by the things he loved: Beanie babies and a Tampa Bay Buccaneers teddy bear.
The tiny hands that family members say used to be "into everything" now clasp only an angel Christmas tree ornament.
During this season, while the world outside is bathed in bright lights to joyously remember the birth of a special child, people inside this chapel are mourning the death of another special child, one that seems more real to them right now than the one lying in the manger.
Their knowledge of Michael Blackwell didn't come only from the Bible or from Sunday school teachers or television specials.
No, they watched as "Mikey" played with cars and giggled at cartoons. They heard him try to belt out the Barney theme song:
I love you, you love me. We're a happy family.
"Whether he was bringing a flower to Mee-Maw or testing your patience, he'll always be very special to you," the Rev. David Hope told the small crowd Monday at a memorial service for Michael, the Land O'Lakes boy who died last week after a friend accidentally hit him with a pickup truck.
The death was made more tragic by the fact that the man whose truck backed over Michael, was helping the toddler's mother make ends meet. Just before the accident, Ace Levi Scott had taken Cassie Robinstein, who had lost her job and was having to live in a run-down motel, to buy groceries.
As the bags were being unloaded, the toddler somehow slipped outside.
Hope said trying to understand why the accident happened is impossible.
"We will never understand why," he said. "I'm like you, asking what it means. I just don't know. It just hurts."
Hope's words are more than just what a sympathetic pastor uses to comfort a grieving family. He's been there. In 1989, his son died shortly after birth.
"Nothing made any sense to me," said Hope, who co-founded a support group for parents who have lost children. "So I kept asking questions. There was no answer. So I started asking a different question: What was I going to do now that this had happened to me?"
He said Michael's death would not be in vain if family members learn from the boy's example. Though his life ended just before his second birthday, Michael left his family with a legacy of innocence and unconditional love.
Family members who feuded while Michael was alive would do well to imitate him now, Hope said.
"That's what heaven is like -- little kids," Hope said. "Many adults are too narrow minded. Mikey offers inspiration to us to keep our hearts and minds wide open."
After the service, mourners filed past the coffin, decorated with white and baby blue carnations as a tape of Elton John's ballad Blessed played.
And you, you'll be blessed
You'll have the best
I promise you that
I'll pick a star from the sky
Pull your name from a hat
I promise you that, promise you that, promise you that
You'll be blessed
As the time came for her to leave her baby in the funeral home, to be sent to Illinois for burial, Michael's mother burst into sobs.
"I can't do this," she said as family members hugged her.
Then the doors opened, and mourners re-entered a world that is getting ready for a birthday party.
-- Lisa Buie is the editor of the central/east edition of the Pasco Times. You can reach her at (813) 909-4604 or toll-free 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4604. Her e-mail address is buie@sptimes.com