On the evening of June 6, bagpipes played and English teacher Jacquelyn Baker held open the doors as the Oak Hills High School Class of 1997 marched into Shoemaker Center. Michael Tenhundfeld was among those receiving a diploma, a huge smile spread across his face.
During commencement, assistant principal Susan Thomas, who had known him for seven years, handed Mike his diploma. Afterward, government teacher Tim Taylor shook his hand and wished him luck.
Thirteen days later - about the time of day he used to see his student in second-bell government - Mr. Taylor was attending his funeral. A lone bagpipe proceeded his coffin into St. Lawrence Church in Price Hill.
Last Sunday evening, the 18-year-old, his girlfriend and another friend were on their way home from their job, selling nachos and hot dogs at Cinergy Field. A police cruiser smashed into their car as it crossed an intersection. Michael Tenhundfeld was dead at the scene.
The senselessness of the act, the waste of a young life shocked and saddened the Tristate. For Oak Hills High School staff, it was the wrong end to Mike Tenhundfeld's story, not the way things were supposed to turn out.
Backbone of class
Michael Tenhundfeld was not the face in the paper, the body pulled out of the twisted wreckage.
Michael Tenhundfeld was the kid who said hi to his teachers in the hallway. The kid who, on the first day of class, distanced them with his baggy clothes and earring, then spent the rest of the year making them glad he walked through their door.
He volunteered to read characters' parts in Mrs. Baker's Shakespeare class, and he read his lines with feeling. "He was one of those nice, respectful kids that are the backbone of a class," she says.
Most days, he and his girlfriend, Trina Dixon, arrived early in John Stenger's homeroom. They'd joke, share a word or two about the "stuff of the day," and Mike would invite his teacher to come try the nachos at Cinergy Field. Sometimes, he'd pull out pictures and talk about his infant daughter.
"He had a good heart," says Mr. Stenger, his accounting teacher. Mike was part of the government class that dropped Mr. Taylor one of his favorite end-of-the-year notes. "Government rocks," it said.
Ache and anger
Tragedy stole Michael Tenhundfeld not just from his family and his close teen-age buddies. It stole him from his teachers as well.
It is one of the sharp-edged pieces of misfortune that few people stop to consider. When young people die, their teachers mourn. They feel a pale shade of the ache and anger that break a parent's heart.
They have invested in their students' lives, and they can't help but have hopes for them, however grand or humble. They expect to bump into them in a grocery store a few years down the road. They expect a smile and a handshake. They expect to find their careers in place, their lives established.
Mike Tenhundfeld would marry Trina, his constant companion and clearly the love of his life. He would go to the University of Cincinnati, hold a job, be a good worker, a cheerful guy. He would always have a smile and a nod for his teachers.
They were modest goals, but Mike Tenhundfeld was a modest kid. He could have gotten off track earlier in his life, and some of his friends did. But Mike Tenhundfeld made it. He righted his wrongs, kept out of trouble, finished the course, graduated.
And through it all, he kept the one, rare thing for which his teachers most remember him. A good heart. He was the kid with the good heart. He should have passed through that intersection safely. He should have been on his way to dinner with his mother, to a mindless, carefree spring evening out.
He should have had his chance at love, at work and stability. He should have had his chance at life.
"They're all so beautiful and so handsome at graduation, so full of joy and promise," says Mrs. Baker. "When their promise and expectation come to an end, you feel so angry for them. You just wish you could give that back."
RAMSEY ARCHIVE
Krista Ramsey's column appears in The Enquirer on Saturdays. Write her at 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202 or fax at 768-8340.
MOTHER, GROUP ADVOCATE SAFER POLICE PURSUITS
Previous stories
OFFICER REPRIMANDED FOR CHASE LAST SUMMER June 19, 1997
VICTIM'S FAMILY PRAYS FOR OFFICER June 19, 1997
OFFICER: CHASE WAS SLOW June 18, 1997
PROSECUTORS CONSIDER CHARGES June 18, 1997
PURSUED MAN RACKED UP OFFENSES June 18, 1997
TENHUNDFELD VISITATION TODAY June 18, 1997
COP IN CRASH RAN STOP SIGN June 17, 1997
COPS' PURSUIT RULES VARY June 17, 1997
DIAGRAM OF THE CHASE June 17, 1997
TYPICAL DAY, TRAGIC NIGHT June 17, 1997
HIGH-SPEED POICE CHASE FATAL June 16, 1997
