12 | JANUARY 5 • 2023 

I

t’s quite a sight to see: a bright orange 
Nissan Versa Note zipping around 
town, a large blue magnetic sign 
affixed to its door that says, “on the run 
doing mitzvahs.
”
The white-bearded man behind the 
wheel of the “mitzvah mobile” is Joey 
Roberts, 71, of West Bloomfield and 
sitting next to him is his adorable Shi Tzu, 
Rosie.
Life has given some hard knocks to 
Joey, but he’s found that giving to others 
has given him reason to smile again. 
Joey grew up in Detroit in a Reform 
household and attended Temple Israel. He 
earned a degree in special education but 
never used it; instead, he joined the family 
furrier business his great-grandfather 
started in Bay City in 1870. He met and 
fell in love with his future bride, Linda, 
while attending Wayne State University in 
1971. 
Joey has always loved making people 

smile. In the 1980s, he became “Joey the 
Clown” at Temple Israel for a few years. 
Even with her busy work schedule, Linda 
often joined him as his assistant clown 
in training. Together, they performed at 
local orphanages, nursing homes, battered 
women and children’s shelters and at kids’ 
birthday parties. 
The couple have three children: Kelly, 
43, who works for Oakland Schools; 
Melissa, 40, who works in marketing; 
and Joshua, 38, a lawyer. When Kelly 
married David Schneyer, she gained three 
stepsons, Benjamin, Jacob and Andrew, 
whom Joey and Linda joyously welcomed 
as grandchildren. 
They were happily married for 40 years.

A PUNCH IN THE GUT
In 2008, Linda got sick. 
“She practiced as an ob-gyn and, 
ironically, got ovarian cancer,
” Joey said. 
“When she was first diagnosed, I was 

crying by her bed. I asked her, ‘What are 
we going to do?’ She told me, ‘First, you 
have to stop crying.
’ Then she stood up 
and started walking. I thought, if she can 
be this brave, I better toughen up.
”
Linda fought valiantly for nine years, 
but the disease kept coming back. 
“It was like whack-a-mole, but with 
cancer,
” Joey said. 
Even while Linda was fighting cancer, 
Joey and Linda opened their home to 
others. A friend, Howard Miller, who’
d 
been living with his parents needed 
support after his parents passed away 
when he was also diagnosed with 
cancer. At the same time, Joey’s brother, 
Chadwick Roberts, had divorced and 
moved back to Detroit. Joey and Linda 
offered each of them a room in their 
home. 
“It was like Wendy and the lost boys, 
with Linda taking care of all of us, always 
giving, even when she was sick herself,
” 
Joey said.
By December 2016, after her health had 
taken a turn for the worse, Linda told Joey 
‘I’m done.
’ Joey took his wife home for the 
last time on the first night of Chanukah. 
Even though she was extremely sick, 
Linda wistfully told Joey she wanted to 
attend Menorah in the D.
“That was the first time I ever said no 
to her in my life,
” Joey recalled. “It was 
impossible. She was going home in an 
ambulance on oxygen. She passed away 
peacefully in her sleep 10 days later.
”
Sadly, Howard died in 2019 and 
Chadwick died in 2021. 

MORE KNOCKS
Around the same time Linda was first 
diagnosed, Joshua began self-medicating 
his emotional pain with opioids while he 
was in law school. Soon he was struggling 
with a devastating drug addiction. 
 Terrified he would lose his son as well 
as his wife, Joey did everything he could 
to help. 
A friend at Temple Israel suggested Joey 
start attending Al-Anon meetings through 
Friendship House in West Bloomfield.
“I’
d heard of Friendship Circle, but not 
Friendship House … I hustled over there, 
met Levi Shemtov and started attending 
meetings. I learned how to help myself so 
I could help my son,
” Joey said. 

OUR COMMUNITY

West Bloomfield man and his dog are on 
a mission to do good in the world.

ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

One-Man
Mitzvah Mobile

Joey Roberts and 
Rosie in the 
mitzvah mobile

