Michelle Levesque had tried but had accepted that religion wasn’t going to help her understand her mother’s death when she was 14. Even so on Christmas Eve, 1990 she suggested to her sister, Nicole Levesque, “Why don’t we go to that thing you go to?” The thing Nicole went to was a Unitarian Universalist Church and there was one in Chandler, AZ reasonably close by. This story would be even more exciting if there were bursts of trumpets and UU angels, but for her it was simply a religion that spoke to her without the trappings of miracles. The human Jesus, the teacher and wise person was enough for her and enough to become involved with local UU churches wherever she moved thereafter.
Fast forward to 2004 and Michelle, for the first time since they were teenagers, moved near to Nicole. After shopping for churches as most UUs do, she found that UUCSS was the right size and mix of people, most similar to her church in Santa Monica which was one of the things she missed most after moving here. In quick succession she taught: Summer children’s RE; two years of Coming of Age; and two years of YRUU. She was the interpreter coordinator on the Deaf Access Committee and then lead the Annual Budget Drive. She recently finished a three year term as Vice President of Finance, one of the most difficult volunteer positions in the church and she’s still helping out there. We are amazingly fortunate that Michelle decided to check out “that thing” that Nicole was so involved with.