My Brother Michael McHugh

I like to tell the story that the first time I laid eyes on Michael was the day he came home from the hospital. I peered into his crib and here was this purple skinned baby with bright orange hair. I was pretty sure that other people’s babies didn’t look like that, so I was definitely disappointed. That was over fifty years ago and I still think that my brother is not like any other brother, but in a genius way.

When God was handing out the talent Michael kept going back for seconds. He drove his fifth grade teacher nuts because he kept writing plays and getting his friends to act them out. In middle school he won many acting awards. In high school he was one of the yell leaders. He acted in educational films. He danced like one of the Jackson family. Michael could draw and paint. He played the guitar and he sang. Michael and his good friend Neal appeared four times on the Gong Show. They sang a jazz rendition of “Ding, Dong, the Witch Is Dead” from the “Wizard of Oz.” The producers kept inviting them back. So, one of Michael’s early problems was deciding which talent he was going to concentrate on. Unfortunately, another one of his problems was that our father did not value or encourage his talents. Time and again Dad put up road blocks to Michael developing his abilities.

After trying college Dad’s way and dropping out, Michael got a job as a bank teller and very quickly rose to the level of senior vice president of a savings and loan. To satisfy his creative side Michael would buy houses and renovate them to resell at a profit. When our father died Michael felt free enough to quit his bank job, and he and his partner, Keith moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Michael and Keith bought a house in the center of town and turned it into a bed and breakfast. Michael’s architectural renderings for the renovation were always approved by the city inspectors. It seemed that life was pushing him to focus his talents on home design. The bed and breakfast was a success, and Frommer’s Guide highly recommended it. While Keith tended the bed and breakfast, Michael continued to design homes through a store in town called Tara Tucker.

Some people’s lives move along peacefully but Michael is not one of those people. Keith decided to end their relationship, forcing them to sell the bed and breakfast and split the proceeds. When Michael met a new partner, he decided to move back to L.A. because Tom was HIV positive and struggling with his health. Together they opened a home design store on Ventura Boulevard called the Crimson Rooster.

Michael has had many clients that he has designed for. One of my favorite stories is about a woman who would often show up in his store to buy one or two items. Then one day she told him that she wished she had a house just like the store. She lived in a house where she was always surrounded by people because she had a husband, five children and forty servants. She wanted a place where she could go just to be by herself and experience peace and quiet. Michael went out and found a little house in the hills off of Laurel Canyon, and she bought it for cash. Then, Michael remodeled it to look like the store. After that, he worked as her designer, and he was constantly busy because as a person with an endless supply of money this woman was always coming up with new projects. Michael even let me help him once when he was assigned to redecorate their Gulfstream jet. I was thrilled.

Most people today live long and productive lives while being HIV positive, but Tom wasn’t that lucky. The drug cocktails stopped being effective, and Tom moved into the AIDS portion of the illness. Tom was incredibly brave facing death and Michael was a faithful and self-sacrificing partner, nursing him twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week until Tom took his last breath. After Tom died Michael went through a bad period of time. He lost the Crimson Rooster and the home he and Tom had bought together. For the next six years Michael worked at Bedfellows in Studio City. Working at Bedfellows taught him a lot, especially about modern design. Michael and my husband discovered how much they liked each other. So, the three of us have become a team. We designed a new and better Crimson Rooster named Filigree. If the economy will let us, I am hoping that we might be heading toward a new level of success. I am thrilled to be his partner, and I believe that his incredible talent will win out against the obstacles we face.