After husband's death, Michigan mom honors childhood sweetheart by starting business in his honor

ROYAL OAK, Mich. (FOX 2) - A Royal Oak mom suffered heartbreak nearly five years ago when the love of her life died just two weeks before their twin boys were born. The two grew up together and he had a dream of opening a business together. Five years later, she's making that dream come true.

Michelle Brown is a mother, widow, and now an entrepreneur. She met her late husband, Bobby, when they were both kids. They were true childhood sweethearts who were best friends and later married and started their family.

"We came back together when we were about 19 years old, and we ended up getting married when we were 23," Michelle said.

But life didn't go according to plan.

Bobby was born with cystic fibrosis, which Michelle learned in high school. In 2015, he was lucky enough to receive a double lung transplant but his body rejected it.

Three years later, in January 2018, Bobby passed away. That was only two weeks before their boys, Oliver and Caleb, were born. Aiden, the couple's eldest son, was only 9.

"He was very withdrawn, he was very introverted but he still loved the videos, the video games and it was actually him that was like I think I want to do this mom," Michelle says about Aiden.

In the months after his dad's death, Aiden turned to his love of gaming to cope.

That gave Michelle inspiration and reminded her about Bobby's dream of opening a business together.

"We knew we wanted to do something for kids. We knew we wanted to do something for kids in this area," Michelle said

Fast-forward to 2020 and she buys her first Code Ninjas franchise, a business that's centered around the very thing her son loves - computer programming. A year later, the door was open.

"Code Ninjas is a center for kids ages 7-14 to come in and learn about computer programming and they do this through ramification so they’re playing games and learning at the same time," Michelle said. "The first four belts we teach kids JavaScript. The blue belt - the middle one - we get into Roblox, which if you say Roblox to anyone ages 7-14, their eyes light up and they’re just super excited."

By the time they earn their final belt, they're designing apps and games that their parents can access.

"These kids have untapped potential for creativity and what they want to do," Michelle said.

Today, she feels empowered and wants the same for other women and girls - which is why her staff of 8 high school students is split 50-50.