By June Mathews
Mike and Lou Ann Jezdimir of Alabaster met on a blind date subtly arranged by their landlady, who simply asked Lou Ann to give a newcomer a tour of the town. The couple-to-be lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where Mike had recently accepted a job with a medical device manufacturer. The connection was immediate.
“When I was asked to show Mike around, I agreed, and that was it,” said Lou Ann. “I showed him around ‘The Zoo’ and told him a little bit about the city. Then when we got back to my house, I invited him to come in, and we sat in the backyard and talked all night.”
A few months later, on November 20, 1971, Lou Ann and Mike were married in a small ceremony at her church, followed by a small reception at a hall they rented for five dollars. “It wasn’t fancy, but we were married and very happy,” Mike says. With their vows, Lou Ann joined Mike on a journey he had begun four years earlier.
Mike’s story
For 17-year-old Mike, July 9, 1967, was a typical day on the job at a gas station in Detroit. But around noon, his arms started hurting, and he was having trouble gripping and holding onto things. “I thought I was probably getting the flu,” he says.
Mike told his boss he wasn’t feeling well, then went home, crawled into bed, and fell asleep. When he woke up six hours later, he was unable to move his arms, legs, or even his fingers. “I was paralyzed from the neck down,” he says. “All I could do was holler. My dad had to pull me onto his back to get me down the stairs and out to the car to drive me to the hospital.”
Tests revealed a spinal cord infection causing Mike’s immune system to attack his own body tissue, which in turn caused inflammation and damage to the myelin in his spinal cord. Having nailed down the cause of the paralysis, it was a while—15 years, in fact—before doctors finally identified the culprit: Transverse Myelitis (TM), a rare autoimmune disease that attacks without warning or discrimination and comes with a lifetime of extreme pain and fatigue.
Mike’s youth, however, worked in his favor. A self-styled cocky teen blessed with inordinate amounts of strength, tenacity, and determination, he realized that regaining mobility would be up to him. After 29 days in the hospital, he was transferred to a rehab facility, where he set to work. Several months later, he was released with a special wheelchair and crutches. “I could walk,” says Mike, “but if I had to go any distance, I had to use the wheelchair.”
In discussing his future with a psychologist, he settled on drafting as a career. After finishing high school from home, he then trained at a state-run rehab school to become a tool and die draftsman. He later went back to school, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering in 1989, while working full-time, raising a family, and volunteering with Junior Achievement.
Forming a TM Foundation
Mike enjoyed a 33-year career in a field he loved, while Lou Ann, a hairdresser, took on most of the responsibility for raising their two sons. But by 2003, Mike’s body was wearing out, so his doctor suggested that he retire and apply for disability.
By then, both sons were living in Alabama and urging Mom and Dad to join them. So, in 2004, Mike and Lou Ann headed south to their new home in Alabaster. Moving meant a new medical team for Mike, headed by Dr. Amie Jackson, a world-renowned spinal injury specialist at UAB.
In 2013, inspired by Dr. Jackson’s work and a little girl with a big smile, the Jezdimers formed the Mike L. Jezdimir Transverse Myelitis Foundation to promote awareness and raise money for research.
“We had heard there was a two-year-old named Rachel in Children’s Hospital from Tuscaloosa who had TM,” says Lou Ann. “She couldn’t talk, couldn’t move, and was totally paralyzed from the neck down, but she had a beautiful smile. She loved Mike and would blow him kisses. As soon as we left the hospital that day, we knew we had to do something to help.”
Once the foundation was formed, the Jezdimers sought help with fundraising. Much to their surprise, the entire Alabaster community, including former mayor Marty Hanlon, city councilmembers Kerri Bell Pate and Stacy Rakestraw, and some neighbors stepped up. “We were doing a couple of fundraising events—usually a run or a fishing tournament— every year, and they pitched in on every one of them,” says Lou Ann. “With just a handful of people, the foundation has raised and donated a little over $100,000.”
Much of the money has gone to provide much-needed funds for research. “We were instrumental in setting up a TM clinic at UAB,” Mike says. “It’s only the third institution like it in the world, and it’s so busy right now that it takes six months to get an appointment. In the U.S., around 2,000 people are diagnosed with TM each year.”
No longer physically able to continue the events, the Jezdimirs still accept donations for Transverse Myelitis research through the foundation’s website at tackletm.com.
These days, Mike is confined to his wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down following a surgical procedure in 2023. Lou Ann has undergone back and knee surgeries in recent years yet manages to spend much of each day devoted to Mike’s care. “But the thing is, I know if the situation were reversed, he would be caring for me,” she says.
And Lou Ann is no less in awe of Mike than when she married him nearly 54 years ago. “The strength and tenacity he’s shown all this time is just mind-boggling, to me,” she says. “I guess that’s why after that first date of showing him around town, I was thinking, ‘Man, this guy is something else.’”
The Mike L. Jezdimir Transverse Myelitis Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation. Visit tackletm.comfor more information.