Many people in St. Louis watched Mike Roberts deliver the daily weather cast on KSDK – Channel 5 for several years and, by his strong familiarity and fondness of the region, many have come to believe he’s a native St. Louisian.
However, Mike was born in Detroit, Michigan, where he lived until the age of seven before his family moved to the northwest Detroit suburb of Southfield.
Mike remained in Southfield until he went away for college at Central Michigan University. There he earned a degree in Broadcast Journalism – it would be the first milestone to a long and celebrated broadcasting career.
At CMU, Mike met a young lady named Anne. Mike and Anne began a relationship and quickly fell in love. They married while in college.
Young and in love, Mike and Anne spent the next several years starting a family and pursuing professional interests. In 1984, while working at a television station in Omaha, Mike decided to go back to college for a degree in Atmospheric Sciences (Meteorology) at Creighton University. This was the second major milestone in his broadcasting journey.
Mike and his family moved a lot during his career; three times before he went back to school in Omaha, three more afterwards.
Anne supported every move and was always his biggest fan.
KSDK in St. Louis was their seventh move, and his final career stop; even though he didn’t know it at the time. There, he and Anne settled into their community, raised a family, and made incredible memories. So many that Mike still cherishes today.
Caption: Anne and their four children.
As time went by, Mike and Anne were blessed with a wonderful life full of love and faith. They also continued to draw close to St. Louis.
But, little did they know their time together was dwindling.
In 2012, Anne was diagnosed with cervical cancer and her prognosis was grim. Her rapidly declining health required Mike to become her primary caregiver. And, when Anne entered hospice care, he was there to care for Anne and support the hospice care team whenever needed. Mike says,
“I had been a hospice volunteer for quite a while at that point and that helped me in a lot of ways. The biggest was to know I had time with Annie. So did her children and parents, her sister and all her friends and…she had so many friends. Yes, it was still heartbreaking…but at least, with hospice, we had some time to say goodbye…and to show how much we loved her.’
In 2013, after 34 years of marriage, the Lord thought she’d given enough love to everyone and took her to her eternal home. Through her faith, Anne longed to meet her Creator, which allowed her to pass away with peace and fullness.
By experiencing this personal “storm”, Mike became stronger in his faith and spent more time directing his compassion towards others. A few years after Anne’s death, he moved away from television and began a new professional journey in the senior care / managed care industry.
Today, he works as the Manager of Communications and Public Relations at the Visiting Nurse Association of Greater St Louis. In his role, he works alongside professionals that once helped and cared for him while caregiving for Anne.
Mike will not, and cannot, forget his time caring for Anne, and his experience has shaped his attitudes on life to be more compassionate, humble, and joyful.
Each day, he recognizes how his fresh attitude has benefited his life journey, and he shares that favor with his new wife, Karen, his children and grandchildren and Karen’s children.
It’s an attitude that he hopes others will find and celebrate in their own journey.
