Jonathan Michael Michelsen was 39 years old when he passed away at home on August 6, 2021. He was surrounded by his loved ones after courageously fighting ALS for four and a half years.

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He was born March 24, 1982, to Michael and Sue Michelsen in Columbus, Ohio. He attended Kent State University, ultimately deciding to go into pharmacy school, following his parents into the profession. Fates aligned and Jonathan began to work as a staff pharmacist at Walgreens in the small Washington town of Anacortes, where his future wife worked as a pharmacy tech. Love blossomed and two years after their first kiss, Jonathan and Janetta married in October 2016. The future seemed limitless and the couple set plans for their careers, for a family and for a life growing old together. 

Six months later, ALS changed those plans.

Jonathan began to notice symptoms that did not go away. In July of 2017, after just three years of practicing pharmacy, he had to stop working, unable to fully operate his right hand any longer. In September of 2017, just one month shy of their first anniversary, an ALS diagnosis was confirmed.

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It was not long before the disease confined Jonathan to a wheelchair, robbing him of the ability to eat, speak, breathe, move and walk. Jonathan and Janetta put their plans for the future into high gear, to enjoy their remaining time together with a family. Their son, Tyson Riley Jonathan, was born in 2018. Jonathan learned to communicate via assistive technology and participate in the baby’s life with the use of durable medical equipment.  

Their second son, Wesley Ryan Taylor was born just weeks after Jonathan passed away from ALS.

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Every ninety minutes, someone is diagnosed with ALS and someone else dies from the disease. The disease is always fatal. During the Michelsen’s journey, The ALS Association worked to provide the family with care services and support, including the assistive technologies that enabled Jonathan to interact and communicate with his family once he lost the ability to move his limbs and communicate. During that time, the Association was also hard at work behind the scenes, advocating for policy such as the end of the five-month waiting period for families like the Michelsens to receive much needed Social Security Disability benefits and funding for ALS research by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defense (DOD.)

The ALS Association is the only national nonprofit committed to fighting ALS on all fronts: 

• Working in research labs and clinics worldwide to find effective treatments and a cure for ALS 

• Providing care services through its national network of local chapters and multidisciplinary clinics 

• Advocating state and local government for policies and funds to empower people living with ALS, their caregivers and their families. 

There have been tremendous scientific breakthroughs but we have yet to find a cure to ensure loving couples like the Michelsen’s can raise their families and grow old together without the specter of ALS in their lives.