TPSS Mourns the Loss of Michele Byrd TPSS Co-op is taking up a collection to help support Michele’s family at this difficult time. You can contribute by clicking on the Donate button. 7/26/21 TPSS Community, I’m writing with a heavy heart as we learned over the weekend that Michele Byrd has passed away. Michele has worked at the Co-op as a cashier since 2014 and also served as a Union steward helping to negotiate the Collective Bargaining Agreement and represent her coworkers. Walking into the store this morning was eerie because Michele wasn’t standing at register 3 talking with customers and coworkers about whatever was on her mind. Michele was always on, but morning was always the best before things got busy. She would have a tale to tell about her grandson, or where she ate over the weekend, or something funny that irked her. She knew your member number by heart. She watched your kids grow up over years of trips to the Co-op and always remarked about how big they were getting. If your apple had a bruise, she’d make sure you got a new one. She asked you what you were cooking and told you what she would add to the recipe. To borrow a phrase, she didn’t have a shy bone in her body. If she had an opinion, you’d know it. The whole TPSS community is better for having had our time with Michele, and today our community is mourning her loss. It’s going to be really hard to look at register 3 each morning and not see her there. It will be difficult to walk through the store and not hear her giving advice on parenting or what’s on sale that week. I’ll miss hearing the story she tells about growing up in DC and the first time she went to visit “the hippies in Takoma Park”. I used to leave little drawings all over the walls of the first grocery store I worked at in Brooklyn. When I left to move back to DC, I was incredibly sad to leave my coworkers and the whole community around the store. During my last week I looked at all those little doodles. I wasn’t leaving at all; my imprint was everywhere, it was permanent. Michele will be missed, but she left an imprint on this store, on her coworkers and on our community. The thousands of people who Michele touched with just a few minutes of small talk each day. That imprint never goes away. It’s permanent. Michele’s Service: August 11th, 2021 St Francis de Sales Catholic Church 2015 Rhode Island Avenue NE Washington DC 20018 Viewing from 10am to 11am Church Service from 11am to 12pm Burial at Fort Lincoln Home & Cemetery 3401 Bladensburg Rd Brentwood MD 20722 PrintTweet
