Lynnwood police help widow of pedestrian killed by vehicle

LYNNWOOD — From her bedroom window, Lois Wood always watched her husband cross the street to his bus stop.

On Dec. 1, something on television caught her attention. On that day, she turned away.

She last saw Michael Wood at the crosswalk. He was on his way to work as a mental health counselor on the night shift.

Sirens are common in their Lynnwood neighborhood. Lois didn’t think anything was unusual when she heard them that evening.

Hours later, she would learn that her husband was hit by a car and killed while crossing the street.

She is 68, and he was 72. Dec. 30 would have been their 45th anniversary. They never had children, choosing to share life with each other.

“We liked our freedom,” she said. “We had good friends. We did things like drive to Mexico.”

They lived well until about 15 years ago. Michael was in the electronics industry and they took a hit as manufacturers moved jobs overseas. Some of their investments soured.

They lost their Brier house of 27 years. Recently, they’d been living in an apartment in Lynnwood.

Michael hoped to retire at 76. His counselor job was paying the rent.

He never wanted a funeral, Lois said. She’d like to spread his ashes in their favorite places, Magnuson Park and the beach in Edmonds. She hasn’t been able to pay for the cremation. More than a month later, his body still is at the medical examiner’s office.

Since the death, Lois has felt frozen.

On Christmas Eve, three Lynnwood police officers arrived at the door. One was Mark Brinkman, the president of the union.

The officers knew Lois was having a hard time. They gave her a Christmas card, and a check from the union’s benevolence fund.

The generosity didn’t stop there.

“They have been extremely kind to me,” she said. “They’ve come by multiple times to check on me.”

The union then set up a bank account for community donations. People can give to the “Lois Wood Charity Account” at any Heritage Bank.

Lois never asked for the help. The benevolence fund most often is used for injured officers, but her need was obvious, Brinkman said.

“It struck a chord because we were directly involved in investigating the accident,” he said.

The driver, a 27-year-old woman, has not been cited. Detectives expect to forward their case to prosecutors for review in a couple of weeks.

Lois met Michael on her 21st birthday on Capitol Hill in Seattle. He was British-born, with an accent, and he’d served in Vietnam as a U.S. Marine. He was kind and soft-spoken, with a dry, English sense of humor. They read the same books and they liked long walks.

“He was my life,” she said. “We babied each other. We indulged each other. When people say they don’t believe in soulmates, they’re wrong.”

Their friends, so many of them gone now, were “free-wheeling” types, she said. That meant no kids and lots of golf. Michael also bowled and played baseball.

“He was a go-er,” she said. “I’m an introvert. He’s an extrovert.”

Michael loved music. He played it constantly, though he sold his fancy stereos when they lost the house.

In the good times, he owned “about 10,000 albums, mostly blues, jazz, rock, a little bit of grunge,” she said.

Michael brought music to play for patients at his work. Once, he went from thrift store to thrift store looking for a stereo, she said. It was a gift for a patient who had never owned one.

Now, when Lois leaves the house, she has to cross the street where her husband died. She waits at the same bus stop.

A sympathy card came in the mail from Michael’s coworkers and patients.

One note read: “Dear Mrs. Mike, I miss the music man. I hope you feel better. Missing him.”

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.

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