All his life, Mike Jurich would run ahead to open a door for a woman.
It’s funny the things that come to mind after losing a loved one. Jurich was a member of the “Greatest Generation,” a lifetime Tacoma resident and World War II Navy hero. He and Agnes were married for 67 years, and they had three kids — Mike, Mary Ann and Susie — and six grandchildren.
“At age 90, Dad had to go renew his driver’s license, and all of us kids were like, uh-oh,” daughter Mary Ann Brennan said. “He drove a truck, and I’d told him he’d have to take an eye exam when we got there.
“He walked up and said, ‘Do you want me to do this with or without my glasses?’ and took his glasses off and aced the test. They gave him his new license — and lifted the glasses restriction.”
Last week, two days after his 91st birthday, Jurich died in one of those senseless accidents that broke hearts and left everyone who knew him shaking their heads.
A strong, tough man, Jurich was a World War II frogman who won the Bronze Star for clearing the way to shore through mine fields for four landings in the Pacific Theater. Unless asked, he rarely talked about it.
“He said he’d learned to swim in the cold waters off Old Town, and in the Navy noticed that divers got to eat first,” friend Roland Lund said. “So he volunteered and became a frogman. Those guys preceded the Navy SEALs teams — except in the Pacific operations they didn’t have wet suits.
“They dove in their trunks, and cleared the path of mine fields for the guys behind them.”
After the war, he was a commercial fisherman sailing Alaskan waters, worked in Northwest shipyards and did heavy construction.
“He mulched a yard at 90, and he’d have roofed my house if I’d asked him,” Mary Ann said. “He was the toughest man I ever knew.”
When Agnes was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, Jurich took care of his wife at home for several years, then admitted to his children it had become too much. She went into a care facility, and Jurich visited each evening to feed her dinner. Last week, that’s what killed him.
“Dad was allergic to whole wheat and sesame seeds, and he’d had four or five incidents with it in his life,” Mary Ann said. “When he fed mom, he’d sometimes eat what she didn’t.”
Last Sunday, Jurich ate a small salad with what he thought was Italian dressing. It was ginger. Within minutes, he’d gone into anaphylactic shock.
Raced to St. Joseph Medical Center, Jurich was revived by paramedics and the emergency room crew, was able to talk to all three children when they arrived. When he went into a second crash, Jurich didn’t survive.
