I forget how fragile human life is.

And sometimes, that reality is brought home by stumbling across a local news story.

I am a proud Michigander, preferring the term made immortal by Abe Lincoln's shot at Lewis Cass to the more TPS-cover-sheet-ish "Michiganian."

So when people want to try something new and pioneering in my beloved State, I take interest. 

Such was the case with a story about a nomadic young wife and husband, Kate Leese and Adam Kendall. I read it the day after it was published.

They had a big dream: planting a vineyard and starting a winery on Michigan's historic Beaver Island. Michigan's "King," James Strang, once ruled the Island, and the late Washington Post pundit David Broder loved it and was a frequent visitor.

The rural quiet of the Island has attracted many, so it was not surprising that the young couple fell in love with the place. Their vineyard planting had already begun, in fact:

On the surface, their dream might seem as far-flung as this island in the northern waters of Lake Michigan, but the couple has planted roots on a 120-acre tract deep in the woods of the island, the third-largest in the state. Their planting of 2,100 vines on a fallow field this past spring came after their own extensive research and consultations with others in Michigan’s flourishing wine industry.

“It feels like a place somewhere along the road where you could stop and have a glass of wine with new friends,” said Kate Leese, 35, who grew up in Charlevoix, a resort town across the lake, about 30 miles away. “Our goal is to have that kind of place that brings people together.” 

Wine grapes have been cultivated by others on the island in the past but not for commercial use, the couple says. They'll be the first to bottle and sell their wine on the island as well as the mainland.  

It’s not hard to imagine that kind of operation happening here, on the open lawn behind a turn-of-the-century farmhouse the couple is restoring. Beyond the clearing, where the young vines are sprouting from grow tubes, hardwoods frame the horizon. Apple trees, remnants of another farming era, and sugar maples, exploding in fiery colors, dot the bucolic landscape.

“We have wanted to plant a vineyard, but it was something that we thought about doing 20 years from now, in the future,” said Leese, who has a background in biochemistry and who, like her husband, is passionate about wine. “So many things came together for us in the last year."

Those things included finding a property on Beaver Island after a random stop in fall 2019, in the wake of a boat trip up the northwestern Michigan coastline. They were ready for a more stationary existence after spending three years on the road, pulling a renovated Airstream around the continental United States, working remotely. 

“Almost immediately after we pulled into the marina here, we knew this was the level of quiet we were looking for,” said Kendall, 37, a Jackson native who has a background as an attorney. “At night, there’s almost complete silence here. There’s no light pollution. You can hear every car (if one goes by). It’s the kind of place we had been looking for as our next spot.”

* * *

Part of an archipelago, Beaver Island is home to about 600 year-round residents. It’s the kind of place where everybody knows everybody, where everybody waves as they pass one another, where neighbors pitch in to help one another and where everyone does what they can to help the community.

Yes, Michigan is an excellent wine region, believe it or not. The west coast of Lake Michigan has proven to be ideal for growing wine grapes. So, growing them on Beaver Island was a risk, but promising.

But eight days after their story was published, I read that they died in a plane crash on the Island. It was stunning in the worst way. 

We recognize that we are not promised tomorrow, but we do not really know it until it slaps us in the face.

May they rest in peace and their families and friends be comforted. 

And may someone take up their dream and make it a reality.