Determination rooted in Capac alumnus

Editor’s note: The following article was submitted to highlight the battle of a Capac alumnus who has been determined to beat numerous physical challenges. Mike Niezgoda, a 1977 graduate of Capac High School, has been an innocent sufferer, and an inspiring overcomer of obstacles, for much of his life. He sends greetings from rural Tennessee.

Niezgodas’ father passed away two months before high school graduation, and his family home in Capac was inexplicably boarded up by the executor of the estate.

Mike was homeless on the night of his high school graduation, sleeping on the streets of Detroit.

A friend’s father let Mike sleep in his backyard camper in Clawson, Michigan.

Later, Mike fell in love and, seven months out of high school, he married his wife Zella, to whom he is still married after 48 years. Mike says that “at that time I had nothing.” Zella’s father helped Mike get a job at General Motors, where Mike worked his entire career.

Immediately, after getting married in 1978, at age 19, Mike was diagnosed with brain cancer. It was successfully removed but came back later.

Mike said “my sinuses are shot from the radiation and my ears fill up with fluid.” The removal of the tumors have left a large scar that runs from ear to ear across the top of his forehead.

Mike went back to work and was promoted to be a group leader at GM in Pontiac, supervising a team of workers. He decided that he wanted to learn a good trade, so he went to diesel mechanic school in Detroit and became a certified diesel mechanic.

Mike and Zella moved to Tennessee in 1989 and he continued to work for GM at the Spring Hill Saturn plant.

He says, “as a diesel mechanic, crawling under the dashboards of the vehicles caused me over the years to have eight back surgeries”, for which he sees a pain doctor on a monthly basis.

Mike was forced to retire on disability after 26 years with GM. He has an implant in his back, and wires hooked to his nerves to help with pain management.

In January 2012 Mike was at home and developed congestive heart failure and double pneumonia. Zella drove him to the hospital and it was during that drive his heart stopped beating.

Hospital staff were able to revive Mike shortly after his arrival.

Asked what pulled him through, and brought him back to life, he teared up and simply said, “It was not my time. I saw my dad by my bed. Zella sat down on the bed and I asked her to move over so I could see my dad.”

Mike said the stories people hear about dying and coming back to life, and seeing a tunnel with a light at the end of it, are true, and “that light is God.”

Mike’s heart failed again in February, and again in March, 2012. He had a defibrillator inserted into his chest, which has kept him alive when his heart has occasionally failed.

Mike and Zella both say that Mike’s dying and coming back to life had a silver lining.

They both said that Mike had been drinking too much and smoking a lot, and was struggling with anger.

When he was revived, Mike quit drinking and smoking, and had much more of a sense of peace and contentment.

Zella said “the experience turned him back into the wonderful man he was when I married him.”

Mike continues to struggle with medical issues as his brain cancer has come back twice, most recently during Covid.

He and Zella were both retired and had some savings and were financially secure at the time, but their insurance did not cover all of Mike’s care, or the transportation that they had to incur on a daily basis getting to and from their medical appointments an hour away.

As a result, they depleted their savings about four years ago, and Zella returned to work at Walmart.

Mike said “people ask what’s it like having everything and waking up and having nothing. It was rough, struggling every day.” They continue to deal with medical expenses.

Mike and Zella own a modest three bedroom one bath modular home, on which they have a mortgage, in rural Tennessee. They recently took out an additional loan on their house to pay off the GM truck Mike bought and financed with a variable rate loan and for which the payments became too high.

Mike is 67. Zella is 68, and plans on retiring next year. Mike walks with a cane and his back pain is sometimes debilitating.

However, he’s still able to work around the house and work in his shed, with frequent breaks. He is still quite handy with his tools and saws. He is able to still safely drive.

Mike and Zella have two wonderful daughters who are happily married and also has three granddaughters. They all live nearby each other and make it a point to visit often. One of his daughters and her husband live next door and are able to check on her folks.

Congratulations to Mike on his perseverance and positive attitude in what has been a life filled with unexpected medical and other challenges.

Family members say Mike would love to receive a greeting from Capac Alumni and pervious neighbors. Greeting cards can be sent to Mike at 1140 Prel Lane Lewisburg, TN 37091. He can also be reached by email at mniezgoda@charter.net.