Linda Fleming has spent more than half her life working as a U-M custodian. In 2011, she endured the devastating loss of her son, Patrick, in a tragic accident. Her resilience in the face of that tragedy is a powerful testimonial to her quiet triumph over loss.

Linda began working at U-M in 1987, as a custodian in Alice Lloyd Residence Hall. At the time, she was a sophomore herself, attending classes at Wayne State University. Her goal was to become an elementary school teacher.

But then she and her husband adopted a son, and before he was out of diapers, she had two more children-twins boys. She quit school, her family became the center of her life, and the custodial job at the U-M became her full-time employment.

Fleming worked at Alice Lloyd for almost a year, and then switched from University Housing to Building Services on Central Campus. Her shifts changed, the buildings in which she worked changed, but the work-cleaning-pretty much stayed the same. And that was okay.

Linda enjoyed working on Central Campus. Lunch hours and breaks were like little vacations-sitting on or near the Diag, enjoying the contagious energy and unbridled enthusiasm of the students. When she began working nights at the Power Center, she delighted in listening to the performances.

Teenage boys and lots of trumpets

Back home, she and her husband were raising their three growing boys, who, with what seemed like a blink of the eye, were teenagers, at Pioneer High School. The twins played in the band-Chris chose the euphonium, but the trumpet was Patrick's, says Linda. "That's what he was good at. I supported him all the way, one hundred percent. I bought a lot of trumpets!"

After high school, Anthony started working at Mongolian Barbecue in downtown Ann Arbor. Christopher enlisted in the United States Marines. Patrick was determined to graduate from the U-M-Flint and play trumpet in the Michigan Marching Band.

Patrick was in his second year at U-M Flint, and in his second year as a trumpeter in the Michigan Marching Band, when he was killed in a car accident on US 23. That happened on the last Monday in September, 2011. Linda was devastated, but she stayed strong for her family, and prayed. She felt the love all around her, from family, friends, and church. She felt support from the U-M community, especially where she worked, at the medical school. There, Linda passed out magnets with Patrick's picture on them. Long-time Taubman Library librarian Anna Schnitzer still has hers.

A musical tribute in the pouring rain

On learning of Patrick's passing, members of the Ohio State University, Michigan State University and Eastern Michigan University bands drove to Ann Arbor to join the grieving 370-member Michigan Marching Band in a musical tribute to Patrick during their late afternoon practice on Elbel Field before Saturday's game against Minnesota. Recalled associate band director John Pasquale, they "showed up in suits and ties and stood with us in the pouring rain. It was an unbelievable showing of class and dignity and compassion and kindness."

At the game, when the band took the field, they left a space in every formation in the trumpet section where Patrick would have stood.

Music can be joyful or painful. "It's joyful," says Linda, without hesitation. "If I hear a trumpet, I feel like that's Patrick playing that trumpet, because he loved that trumpet so much."

A fitting footnote

Subsequent to this interview, Linda moved to a new position as a custodian at Revelli Hall, home of the Michigan Marching Band.

There is a lot of peace and joy in Linda Fleming. She said she has always been this way. "You never really heal from losing a child," Fleming says, but "when you have as many people as I had to support me, it is very helpful."

Asked what advice she would give to others grieving the loss of a loved one, she says, "I would like to say, just keep praying.

"I am 48. I don't think I want to teach now. I think I want to retire in a couple years and I want to travel. Just to enjoy my life some. Because now life is short, and I just want to treasure the time that I have and spend it with my family."