JANUARY 5 • 2023 | 13
It took multiple attempts, four different
rehabs and some painful, disappointing
relapses, but, in 2017, Joshua got clean and
has stayed clean ever since. He’s managed
to pull his life around, even finding and
marrying his beshert, Stevie DuFresne, in
February 2022.
“That’s a miracle right there,
” said a very
proud Joey.
BECOMING MITZVAH MAN
After Linda passed away, Joey felt lost and
miserable at first.
“Then I realized I had a choice: I could
continue to stay at home and feel depressed
or I could go out and be happy. I made a
conscious decision to push myself,
” he said.
Joey turned to his new friends at
Friendship House for support.
“I began learning chassidus with them.
I learned about the soul and what I had to
do to honor Linda and make her happy
in the afterworld … I didn’t skip a beat. I
started learning Torah and doing mitzvot
in honor of Linda’s soul,
” Joey said.
Since Joshua was unable to do it at the
time, Joey took it upon himself to go to
shul every morning and say Kaddish for
Linda.
“Now it’s just part of my routine. I still
go to shul every morning, then I run
around all day doing mitzvahs,
” Joey said.
After shul, he heads over to Dakota
Bread to say hello to his friends there,
then picks up his daily Starbucks from
Soul Café in West Bloomfield.
“The kids there are like my kids,
” Joey
said. “They especially love seeing Rosie.
”
His constant companion, Rosie
Rosenberg, was named by Linda when
she was very sick. “I’m not dying without
naming someone after my mother,
” she
declared in November 2016. Rosie attended
obedience school and became certified as a
therapy dog in 2017.
“My mitzvah mobile just evolved,
” Joey
said.
He drives multiple daily carpools for
kids who live in West Bloomfield and
attend school in Oak Park, does airport
runs and makes deliveries for people who
are homebound. Joey is delighted that he
purchased his car in March 2018 and has
already put 130,000 miles on it!
Joey also visits people in Jewish hospice,
senior living homes and wherever there’s
someone who needs a pick-me-up.
Wherever he goes, he offers a listening ear.
“I visited a World War II vet every day
for the last six months of his life,
” Joey said.
“He had a lot to get off his chest, shared a
lot of stories. It’s a very special thing to be
with people in the last chapter of their lives.
I’m so blessed to be able to do this.
”
Giving to others has given Joey a
renewed sense of purpose. “My life is
fabulous; I couldn’t be happier,
” he said.
Joey has also made it his mission to
break the fear of dogs, especially common
among Chabad kids, and has become the
candy man in shul.
“These are all the joys that I could ever
ask for,
” Joey said. “I have all these kids
in my life, and they love me. I give them
lollipops every Shabbos! I’m the luckiest
guy in the world.
”
After watching Joey constantly volunteer
to help others and run to do a mitzvah, his
friends and fellow members of The Shul
in West Bloomfield banded together and
surprised him with the car sign for his 67th
birthday.
As painful as his losses have been,
Joey has also found comfort through
spirituality.
“I wasn’t this spiritual growing up,
but now I feel different about my life,
knowing that God controls everything. I
reached out to God — for me that was the
answer. It changed my life,
” Joey said. “My
daughters think I’m a little cuckoo, but
that’s OK!”
He completely understands where
they’re coming from.
“If you’
d told me 10 years ago that one
day I’
d get up in the morning, stick a
yarmulke on my head — with hairspray,
no less, because there is no hair on my
head! — I would have said you’ve got
the wrong guy!” Joey said. “No one ever
knows what God has in store for them.
”
LEFT TO RIGHT: Joey and Linda. Joey with his children: David and Joshua in back, Kelly, Melissa and Stevie in front.
Joey Roberts with Rosie outside his mitzvah
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