Angie Kiesgen and Laura Richardson were strangers less than three years ago.
Their paths converged in wrestling, illness and one special little girl.
On Mother’s Day, Kaleigh Kiesgen will miss the mom who gave her life and loved her for eight years and who she lost.
She will also celebrate the mother’s love she has found in Laura Richardson.
Just over a year ago, Laura offered to give Kaleigh a ride from Howell to a wrestling tournament and then took her home to Brighton—to stay.
“I told my husband, ‘I want to keep her,’ and he says, ‘She’s not a puppy,’” Laura recalled. “She just felt like she belonged. It wasn’t like a play date. She fit right in."
That chain of events began shortly before Christmas in 2015, when Steve Richardson, Laura's husband and the head coach for the Michigan Matcats, a wrestling team in South Lyon, told his wife there was a family that needed help.
Angie Kiesgen had suffered liver failure resulting from an auto-immune disorder. She got a transplant in 2013 but was rejecting her new liver.
They organized a Christmas gift drive for the Kiesgen family, which included Liam, now 11, Shane, 15, and Kenzie, 16, as well as three adult children. Kaleigh is the youngest.
Laura, who had suffered through her own health issues for years with skin rashes over 80 percent of her body also caused by an auto-immune disorder, delivered the gifts. Three days after Christmas, she suffered a stroke.
The two sick moms bonded while each was in a different hospital, fighting their own health battles, messaging and talking via Facebook.
“We were complaining about hospitals and food and talking about our kids and what would happen if something happened to us and how our families would survive,” Richardson recalled.
Both began 2016 very sick, but their health improved. Richardson recovered from her stroke. Kiesgen received her second liver transplant, as well as a new kidney, in February of that year.
Soon they were watching their daughters Kaleigh Kiesgen and Rayna Richardson wrestle on the same team.
But, in early 2017, Angie’s health began to decline again. Her body was rejecting the second liver transplant.
In the hospital, she sent out pleas on social media for someone to take her daughter to wrestling practice from their home in Howell. Her husband, Bill, father of their four children still at home, was working 65 hours per week as a vehicle sales consultant in Fowlerville and struggling to meet the financial needs for the family.
Richardson stepped up. She suggested that Kaleigh should spend the night as well. It was March 19, 2017 and it would be a life-changing moment for both families, although at that time, it was perhaps only the two mothers who recognized it.
When Laura, a virtual stranger to Kaleigh, picked her up that Saturday, the little girl shared that she hadn’t seen her mother in the hospital in a week. The tournament was the next day, but Laura realized there was another destination first.
She called Angie and told her she was bringing Kaleigh to see her. At the hospital, Kaleigh crawled into bed for cuddles with her mom. Laura left the pair alone. When she returned a few hours later, they were nestled asleep.
Kaleigh takes a picture with her mother, Angie Kiesgen, when her mom was hospitalized for liver failure in 2015. Angie died in April 2017. (Photo: Submitted)
Kaleigh would go to the Richardsons’ home that night and the tournament the next day. On the way home from the tournament, the family made a stop at Kroger. While Steve and Kaleigh were in the store, Laura sealed the deal as she with her three children — Mckenna, now 15, Travis, 13, and Rayna, 9 — in the backseat of the car, asking for their blessing to add Kaleigh to the family.
“I said, ‘This is what I think we need to do, but you are my kids and my first priority. Tell me if you aren’t willing and we will find another way,’” Laura recalled. “And they said they were good. By that Wednesday, I bought her a bunk bed.”
Bill remembers well the phone call about the furniture purchase.
“She was beating around the bush and telling me she didn’t want to give the wrong impression and I said, ‘Just tell me,’” Bill said. “She said she bought bunk beds and I knew that day my daughter was in the best hands and there was nothing to worry about. They are a gift from God.”
It was around that time that he realized his wife was dying, he said. He believes that the arranged ride to wrestling and Kaleigh spending the night with the Richardsons was all part of a grander plan by Angie to make the best future she could for her youngest child.
“It was a tough decision for me, but, at the end of the day, it was tougher for her,” Bill said. “She didn’t think of her own feelings, she thought of Kaleigh. She didn’t do much by accident. She did everything because of her intelligence and respect for those around her.”
Less than a month later, on April 20, 2017, Angie Kiesgen died.
Watching Kaleigh lose her mother was horrible, Laura said, and she worries that more than a year later the little girl has not completely grasped the loss, particularly since she is in a different environment. While Kaleigh has been sad, Laura notes the Spencer Elementary third-grader in general has a great outlook on life and has improved hers as well.
Laura had struggled with her skin condition so long she said she had “checked out,” and it was everything she could do to get through a day at work as a hair stylist. Kaleigh gave her purpose and now, after medical treatment that has improved her health, her new daughter helps keep her going.
The past year has been a happy one, Laura said, one of first-time experiences for Kaleigh-- camping, horse riding, visiting the mountains. For the Richardson family, the year has brought a renewed sense of gratitude as they see the world through Kaleigh’s eyes.
“She is just excited about everything,” said Laura, who describes Kaleigh as funny, witty, quick and with a strong personality like Angie. “Even when the kids weren’t getting along and I said we were having a family meeting—she was excited and said, ‘Yay!”
Bill is filled with gratitude for what Laura has done for him, and said he jokes with her that she is the best ex-wife he’s ever had. He sees Kaleigh on the weekends and talks to her regularly by phone. It is a relief, he said, to not have to worry about his youngest child.
Laura Richardson has added a new member to the family. From left: Travis Richardson, Kaleigh Kiesgen, Laura Richardson, Steve Richardson, Rayna Richardson and Mckenna Richardson. (Photo: Submitted)
“They are just amazing, amazing people,” said Bill. “I don’t know where I would be without them. That’s the truth. I have all these balls in the air, and I’m so fearful of dropping them. And how cool is it that they say, ‘Let me take one of those and take care of them.’”
A year into this twist of fate, Richardson said she is not a replacement for the mother Kaleigh lost.
Kaleigh remembers her mom as funny. She liked llamas, she says, and “she loved to watch me wrestle.”
She misses her mom and occasionally forgets what Angie’s voice sounds like, Richardson said. At those times, she plays back for Kaleigh voice messages that are saved on her phone. In those messages, Angie can be heard wishing Kaleigh luck at a tournament, telling her to have a great day at school or saying "Good night, I love you.”
Kaleigh also hears “I love you” from the new voices in her life, and she says it often, too.
Other signs of affection common in the Richardson family were a little slower to be returned. For a long time, the kisses Laura planted on her forehead were never reciprocated.
That changed one recent morning when Laura was dropping Kaleigh off at school and got a kiss on the cheek. Laura wondered if she should acknowledge it or pretend she didn’t notice.
“When she got home from school, I knew she was antsy, and I said, ‘When we said goodbye, you kissed me on the cheek. Did you mean to or did your lips just fall on my face?’” Laura said. “She giggled and said ‘I meant to.’”
Rayna Richardson says she feels like she has a new sister and her mom is just like Kaleigh’s mom.
Kaleigh Kiesgen, left, and Rayna Richardson, right, wrestlers, then friends, and now, sisters. (Photo: Submitted)
“She picked my mom to take care of her,” Rayna said. “Kaleigh lost her mom, but now she has mine.”
Emily Ellis met both Angie and Laura through the Facebook group Livingston County Mom Tribe. Angie had donated Christmas gifts for her family during a rough time, much like the Richardson family came through for Angie's.
The generosity of both women inspires Ellis.
“I told Laura one day, ‘It’s a selfish world, so to speak, and no one really wants to step up and help people,’” she said. “It’s so amazing, she is so big-hearted. Angie picked Laura for a reason, because her family is such a beautiful, giving family… Angie just loved really hard, loved everything and everybody. She was just a once in a lifetime woman. With Kal, I see her happy and thriving, and one of Angie’s big concerns was her children and Laura is fulfilling what Angie wanted to continue.”
She marvels at Richardson’s energy—working full-time, running the kids to wrestling, making hair into a pop bottle for “crazy hair day” and a llama costume for Kaleigh for Halloween.
“Angie’s choice in putting Kal with Laura is the best choice she could have made,” Ellis said. “No one can replace Angie, but Laura stepping into the role. It’s hard to put into words how amazing I find that.”
Bill, who said he and Angie were never much for exchanging gifts for birthdays or anniversaries or other holidays, wonders what he could possibly give to Laura for Mother’s Day to show his gratitude for the love she has given his youngest child.
“I feel like this was a parachute for Kaleigh,” Bill said. “Laura brought her stability and a loving, caring, affectionate mother figure for lack of a better word that I would not have been able to provide without my wife’s intelligence…I struggle daily because I miss my wife, but losing your wife of 20 years is a whole lot different than losing your mother when you are 8… I believe in my heart and soul Laura has taken what could have been the worst year of Kaleigh’s life and turned it into the greatest.”
Contact Susan Bromley at sbromley@livingstondaily.com Follow on Twitter @SusanBromley10
