Grace in adversity

Table Spreads for every occasion

Photography by: Jennifer Cecil
Written by: Ashley Petry

*Emily Wadsworth, wife of Ryan Wadsworth, is pictured with the family in the bottom right photo. She was misidentified in the photo on page 64 of the winter issue.

Mike and Janet Wadsworth are no strangers to tragedy. Over the years, they have said goodbye to a string of loved ones—parents, siblings, spouses—in sudden and difficult ways. Now Mike faces a diagnosis of terminal cancer, and the Wadsworth family is learning to cope with yet another farewell.
They met in the early 1980s, exactly where you’d expect a couple to meet in the ’80s: at the mall. She worked at the shoe store, he worked at the grocery store, and he asked her—as an excuse to start a conversation—if she knew of a place that shined shoes.

She didn’t, but she offered to shine the shoes herself, and soon they were arranging their first date.

“We never went out with anybody else after that, and we were engaged within two months of meeting each other,” Janet said. “We’ve been together almost 30 years.”

Mike and Janet were in their early 20s when they married in 1983, but part of their bond was a shared experience of tragedy and loss. Janet’s first husband, whom she’d married at 18, had been killed in a car accident just six months after their wedding. Similarly, at 18 Mike had lost his father to an aggressive form of cancer.

After their marriage, the tragedies kept coming. Janet’s father died unexpectedly in 1985, when she was pregnant with twins. The babies—Jennifer and Ryan—came so early that they weighed only a pound each, and doctors warned the couple that the children wouldn’t live. Janet and Mike watched and prayed as the tiny infants slowly fought their way to health. Just two years later, Janet’s mother died of a stroke while en route to visit her grandchildren. Janet also lost a brother to a heart attack at the age of 35.

Then, in 1990, when the twins were just 5 years old, Mike was in a catastrophic car accident—an accident that occurred on the 10-year anniversary of the car accident that had killed Janet’s first husband. With shattered bones and severe memory loss, Mike battled through 15 months of rehabilitation before finally returning to work.

The Brighter Side

For many people, such a string of tragedies would be paralyzing. But Mike and Janet have an uncanny ability to focus on the positive and keep moving forward—an attitude that has allowed them to create a whole string of successes to balance their challenges.

Soon after their marriage, they purchased a shoe store, expanding it to a chain of three stores in less than three years. Janet is originally from Kokomo, and Mike is from the east side of Indianapolis, but they settled in Greenwood because it was centrally located among the stores.

In 1989 they started a printing company, which went on to acquire more than 20 of its competitors. After Mike’s accident in 1990, the couple sold the shoe stores and focused all of their energy on the company. They renamed it Red Line Graphics in memory of the times Mike’s cardiac monitor had red-lined in the days following the accident.

As Red Line Graphics has grown, so has another of the couple’s business ventures, Wadsworth Realty Investment Group, which now has a portfolio of 14 commercial buildings. Ten of them are in downtown Franklin, surrounding the courthouse and running along Jefferson Street.

“We ended up with quite a few buildings in the Franklin area and got excited about Franklin,” said Mike, who said he tried to recruit tenants that would draw more foot traffic to the downtown area. Eventually, the Wadsworths decided to create their own business in downtown Franklin: a vintage candy and chocolate shop inspired by the long-defunct Nick’s Candy Kitchen.

M.W. Wadsworth and Company Fine Chocolates opened two years ago, and customers have flocked to the old-fashioned store for nostalgic candies, gourmet truffles and fudge, 131 flavors of soft drinks, and more than 180 flavors of popcorn. The Wadsworths have worked hard to make sure the treats are affordable, and they’ve committed to remaining open on Sundays to help draw more weekend business to downtown Franklin.

The Wadsworths have also worked to integrate their two children into the family businesses. Both Jennifer and Ryan, 26, have bachelor’s degrees in business from Franklin College.

“From the time we were 7 years old, we were working in the bindery department, collating and stapling papers,” Jennifer recalled. “Over the years, all the way through middle school, high school and college, we worked our way through the other departments in the business, including cleaning the toilets.”
As the Wadsworths built their businesses, they also filled many roles in the community. Mike served for six years on the board of directors of Roncalli High School, which both of the children attended. (It’s also where Ryan met his wife, Emily.) The couple also arranged in-kind printing support for the school through Red Line Graphics, and for years they helped organize tailgating festivals prior to home football games.

“(The Wadsworths) are the kind of people you want to have on your side and supporting you,” said Joe Hollowell, Roncalli president. “You’d have to say they are a pillar of the community, in the true sense of the word.”

The family has also been active at Saints Francis and Clare Roman Catholic Church, where Mike helped develop an annual parish festival that is now in its fifth year.

The Next Challenge

On a beautiful day in 2007, Mike and Janet were driving to their vacation home in Put-in-Bay, Ohio, when yet another car accident sent him to the hospital. This time, he just had a few broken ribs, and he was soon released.

But something was wrong. During the next few weeks, Mike noticed symptoms that he couldn’t explain: equilibrium issues, severe nausea, and difficulty walking and speaking. In just three weeks, he unintentionally shed 50 pounds.

At first, doctors couldn’t find an explanation. After some of his blood tests were abnormal, however, they ordered a biopsy to check for possible blood cancers. It was a routine procedure, but for Mike it triggered a total collapse. He was unconscious for 10 days as his kidneys failed, at one point functioning at only 9 percent of normal levels.

The diagnosis was advanced multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that is incurable even in its early stages. Doctors—who delivered the news to Janet and the children while Mike was still unconscious—suspected that the car accident had accelerated a kidney shutdown that had already been in progress.
In the years that followed, Mike pursued a number of experimental treatments that could slow the cancer but not conquer it. The process included two stem-cell transplants, both of which led to massive brain infections, and several courses of experimental chemotherapy.
These days, Mike continues maintenance chemotherapy, but his condition is slowly worsening. Because multiple myeloma is so unpredictable, doctors can’t tell Mike how much time he has left.

“It’s been difficult,” said Jennifer, who said she draws strength from her parents to handle the situation. “One day you’re fine and you understand what’s going on, but the next day you wake up and have to remind yourself that nothing is the same as it used to be. Emotionally, it’s been a roller coaster.”
Yet even the emotional challenges of a terminal illness can’t derail the Wadsworths’ habit of looking on the bright side. Each evening, they force themselves to reflect on the good things that happened that day, even something as simple as having a door held open for them by a stranger.
“I don’t think our life here is meant to be an easy path anyway,” Janet said. “I think there’s always challenges, and you’ve always got to do your best with any challenge you’re given.”

When Mike was first diagnosed, she said, she thought it would be easier to lose a husband to cancer than to a sudden car accident.
“I thought, well, at least this way, it’s something I can expect, not to have it be unexpected, not to be unable to say goodbye,” she said. “In actuality, it’s no different. It’s just as hard as dealing with the unexpected. But we’ve learned to deal with it and appreciate every minute.”

To do that, Mike and Janet have scaled back their business commitments, trusting Jennifer and Ryan with increased responsibility. They recently listed for sale the home where they raised their children, and they are searching for a small condominium with fewer maintenance obligations. Mike has begun choosing and wrapping gifts for the grandchildren he may never get to meet, and in the meantime he spends as much time with his children as possible.
Several times this year, the whole family trekked to the waterfront house in Put-in-Bay, where for a short time they could put their worries aside.
 “It’s not far away at all, but you really get away from it all and get to relax,” Ryan said. “If there’s a silver lining to this cancer, it’s our family. It’s really helped us bond even more and get even closer.”

Because he lost his own father to cancer, Mike has been able to guide his children through their journeys of grief.
“It came up on us really fast with my dad, but the change is that I’m more open about my illness,” Mike said. “I make sure that they fully understand that this is the way it is, and this is the way it’s going to be, and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Mike has also been writing a book, “A Walk with My Father,” about how his Catholic faith has helped him through challenging times—and altered those situations for the better.
“The witness to his faith is the biggest legacy that (Mike) is leaving, that even in the midst of pain and suffering life still has value,” said Father Vincent Lampert of Saints Francis and Clare. “Mike has shown us how to face adversity and sickness with strong faith and courage.”

When the book is published, it will become just one piece of a larger legacy that Mike is leaving for his family and the southside community. Another part of that legacy is the success of his children, who are now making their own mark on the family businesses.

Perhaps Mike’s most visible legacy, however, will be his commitment to downtown Franklin and his vision for its future.

When Jennifer Whitaker opened Barx Boutique for Pets last December in one of the Wadsworth buildings, she treasured the business guidance that Mike and his family provided.

“I am just so inspired that he has the energy and charisma to keep going every day,” she said. “I’m so in awe that he continues to look at Franklin and try to make it something bigger.”

With a little TLC, Mike said, Franklin could become the southside’s answer to Zionsville, with a wealth of destination restaurants, unique shops and other amenities to draw visitors from across the region.

“That town is dynamite, and I think … people are starting to realize that,” Mike said. “We hope more people will do what we did and invest in Franklin.”

• February 10
  “Dark Star Orchestra”
  8 p.m., Old National Centre, 502 N. New Jersey St.
• February 10
  “10th annual Greenwood Valentine’s Dance”
  ,
• December 28
  “Untitled document”
  , Johnson County Fairgrounds
• October 1
  “Mallow Run Winery for Winter Warm-up Weekend”
  Noon to 6 p.m., Mallow Run Winery, 6964 W. Whiteland Road
• January 1
  “Indianapolis Home Show”
  , Indiana State Fairgrounds
• April 1
  “STOMP”
  7:30 p.m., IU Auditorium, 1211 E. Seventh St.