Milne Family Support

John & Jodi Milne have been community-minded small business owners and local favorites since 1986. You may know them from when they owned and operated the Corner Bar; you may know them because you've had the pleasure of getting to know their son and daughter, Alex & Emily; you may know them through your patronage of Smokes on Burdick, the family-run, nostalgic cigar shop they've owned and operated for the last 22 years.

To start with an understatement, the Milne's are a great time. John & Jodi are the type of parents who surprise their daughter at work by leaving a custom-printed sign in her favorite parking space. They're all collectors; both John & Jodi's home and shop are filled with cigar signs, vintage peanut butter containers, restaurant memorabilia (mostly McDonald's and Burger Chef) NASCAR, and vintage toys. Emily has approximately 160 pairs of Crocs and Alex loves working on his trucks so much that when he recently married the love of his life, Julie, they signed their marriage license on the hood of his 1999 GMC C3500. They make it a point to make trips to Major and Minor League ballparks -- as many across the country as they can. Alex is a great cook. Jodi and her daughter Emily both enjoy art and are truly creatively talented; the former hand-painted the entire storefront building by herself; the latter regularly designs and creates graphics for her workplace, friends, and her own entertainment. Emily is the Ticket Operations Coordinator for the West Michigan Whitecaps, in the greater Grand Rapids, MI area, and Alex is a union steamfitter for Local 13, which is based in Rochester, NY.

On Friday, December 1st, Jodi's husband -- Emily & Alex's dad, John -- became a below-the-knee amputee. He started feeling poorly two weeks ago and went to several doctors' appointments, concerned by the fact that it was associated with his diabetes. His condition rapidly deteriorated over the last week of November, with an infection that got into his bloodstream, and he was unable to eat, sleep, or really walk. On the afternoon of Thursday, November 30th, he went to the ER and was told he would need to lose the foot or lose his life. He would also need an additional surgery a few days later to re-assess the prior one and treat any remaining problematic tissue.

John will likely need multiple weeks in the hospital as everything heals and they continue to treat his blood infection, monitor his irregular heartbeat, and get all of his levels more stable. After that, there is likely in-patient transition rehab, a new method of getting around in the short-term, hopefully/eventually a prosthetic, and the entire family adjusting to a new normal.

The aforementioned cigar shop, Smokes on Burdick, has been staffed and operated almost entirely by John & Jodi (with a little help from their kids) for just about the last 10 years, and is their primary source of income. While John is recovering, Jodi will be running the shop mostly solo with Alex and Emily pitching in. As is the typical Milne spirit, Jodi is adamant about maintaining business as usual by herself as much as possible in the short-term (sorry in advance about the GoFundMe Mrs. Milne). We know it will be a lot to juggle the home, the dogs, the business, and a husband & father in the hospital, especially since both she and her husband want to do everything in their power to allow their son and daughter to live a "normal" day-to-day in terms of their own homes, careers, etc.

A small contribution can make a huge difference <3