A West Bloomfield man and his dog are on a mission to do good in the world.
A bright orange Nissan Versa Note zips through town, and a large blue magnetic sign on the door reads “Running Mitsuba.”
The white-bearded man at the wheel of the “mitzvah mobile” is Joey Roberts, 71, of West Bloomfield, sitting next to his adorable Shih Tzu, Rosie.
Life took some hard hits on Joey, but giving it to others gave him a reason to smile again.
Joey grew up in a Reformed family in Detroit and attended Temple Israel. He earned a degree in special education, but he never used it. Instead, he joined the family fur business his great-grandfather started in Bay City in 1870. He met and fell in love with his future bride, Linda, in 1971 while attending Wayne State University.
Joey always loved to make people smile. In the 1980s, he became “Joe the Clown” for several years in Israel. Despite her busy work schedule, Linda often joined him as an assistant clown in training. played at our birthday party.
The couple have three children. Kelly, 43, works in a school in Oakland. Melissa she is 40 years old she works in marketing. Joshua, 38, Attorney at Law. When Kelly married David Schneier, she had her three sons-in-law, Benjamin, Jacob and Andrew, whom Joey and Linda were happy to have as her grandchildren.
They were happily married for 40 years.
punch in the gut
In 2008 Linda became ill.
“She worked as an obstetrician-gynecologist and ironically got ovarian cancer,” said Joey. “I was crying by her bed when she was first diagnosed. I asked her. She told me, ‘First, stop her crying.’ Said. Then she got up and started walking. She thought that if she could be this brave, she should be stronger.”
Linda fought valiantly for nine years, but the disease kept coming back.
“It was like a whack-a-mole, but I had cancer,” Joey said.
Even while Linda was battling cancer, Joey and Linda opened their home to others. His friend Howard Miller, who lived with his parents, needed support after his parents died and he too was diagnosed with cancer. Joey and Linda offered rooms in their respective homes.
“It was like Wendy and the missing boys. Linda took care of us all and always gave, even when she was sick herself,” Joey said.
By December 2016, after her health deteriorated, Linda told Joey, “It’s over.” Joey brought his wife home on the first night of Hanukkah. She was very ill, but Linda gave Joey a D.O.
“It was the first time in my life I said no to her,” recalls Joey. “It was impossible. She was sent home in an ambulance on oxygen. She passed away peacefully in her sleep 10 days later.”
Sadly, Howard passed away in 2019 and Chadwick in 2021.
more knocks
Around the same time Linda was first diagnosed, Joshua began self-medicating his emotional pain with opioids while in law school. .
Afraid of losing his son and wife, Joey did everything he could.
A friend of Temple Israel suggested that Joey start attending Al-Anon meetings through the Friendship House in West Bloomfield.
“I had heard of Friendship Circles, but I had never heard of Friendship Houses…I started making a fuss here and there, meeting Levi Shemtov, attending meetings. Helping my son. I learned how to help myself so that I can,” Joey said.
After many tries, four rehabs, and a painful and unfortunate relapse, Joshua came clean in 2017 and has remained clean ever since. found and even married his lover, Stevie Dufresne, and managed to get his life back on track.
“It’s just a miracle,” said a very proud Joey.
Become a Mitsubaman
After Linda died, Joey initially felt lost and miserable.
“Then I realized I had a choice: stay home and be depressed or go out and be happy. I made a conscious decision to push myself,” he said. rice field.
Joey turned to his new friends at the Friendship House for support.
“I started learning chassidus with them. I learned about souls, honored Linda, learned what I must do to make her happy in the afterlife…I learned beats. I learned the Torah and started the Mitzbots in honor of Linda’s soul,” said Joey.
Joshua couldn’t do it then, so Joey decides to go to Shull himself every morning and say Kadish instead of Linda.
“Now it’s just part of my routine. I still go to Shull every morning and run around all day doing my mitzvah,” Joey said.
After shopping, he heads to Dakota Bread to say hello to his friends there and pick up his daily Starbucks from Soul Cafe in West Bloomfield.
“The kids there are like my kids,” said Joey. “They especially love seeing Rosie.”
His regular, Rosie Rosenberg, was named when Linda was very ill. Rosie declared in November 2016 that she “won’t die without naming her after her mother.”
“My Mitsuba phone has evolved,” said Joey.
He lives in West Bloomfield and drives multiple carpools every day for kids who go to school in Oak Park, runs the airport and makes deliveries for people at home. Joey purchased the car in March 2018 and is thrilled that he already has 130,000 miles on it.
Joey also visits Jewish hospices, senior housing, and wherever there are people in need of care. Wherever she goes, she listens.
“I visited a World War II veteran every day for the last six months of his life,” Joey said. “He had a lot to rub on his chest and shared a lot of stories. Being with people who are in the final chapter of his life is something very special. I am so blessed to be able to do this. increase.”
Giving back gave Joey a renewed sense of purpose. “My life is great. I couldn’t be happier,” he said.
Joey also made it his mission to break down the fear of dogs, which is common especially among Chabad children, and became Shur’s Candyman.
“These are all the joys I could ever ask for,” said Joey. I will give you! I am the luckiest man in the world.”
After seeing Joey constantly volunteering to help others and running to do a mitzvah, his friends and fellow members of the Shull of West Bloomfield banded together to celebrate his 67th birthday. I surprised him with a car sign.
The loss was painful, but Joey also found solace through spirituality.
“I didn’t grow up like this spiritually, but now I feel different about my life, knowing that God is in control. I reached out to God.” “For me, that was the answer. It changed my life,” said Joey. “My daughters think I’m a cuckoo, but it’s okay!”
He perfectly understands where they came from.
“Ten years ago, if you woke up one morning and were told to put a yamruk on your head, you would use hairspray and you would have no hair on your head. Joey said, “No one knows what God has in store for them.”
