Humble, Committed Father & Husband: Toms River's Michael Reilly

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Michael Reilly always took care of everyone around him. His neighbors. His friends. His community.

Most of all, he took care of his family, always trying to reassure them, even in the most difficult circumstances. He loved them above all.

"His last words to me were, 'It’s OK. I love you. I’ll see you soon,' " his wife, Rebecca, said Monday. His assurances, his attempt to make sure his family was OK, came as hospital personnel prepared to intubate him on Dec. 8 as he battled COVID-19.

Michael Reilly never woke up; he died 15 hours later, on Dec. 9. He was 47 years old.

"You see all the stories, you just never think it’s real. But he was literally alone for two weeks," Rebecca said. When he was intubated, she had very little warning. The family had been told to quarantine Nov. 12; by Nov. 18 Michael was very ill. He was hospitalized soon after.

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"I couldn't visit, even though I'd had COVID," she said. On Dec. 8 the physician's assistant called and told her they needed to intubate Michael before his situation became an emergency, and wanted to give her and the children a chance to talk to him first. They called her back 10 minutes later, to have her and the kids Facetime with Michael. She had been crying when the phone rang.

"I had to pull myself together really quickly and grab the kids," she said. "He kept telling us 'it's going to be OK.' "

In the days since Michael's passing, she and the kids have looked at photos and videos of him, drawing comfort from hearing his voice. But it's been hard.

"It's hard to see the world going on like nothing has happened, when your whole world has stopped," Rebecca said.

Michael Reilly was the owner of ServPro of Toms River, which he established in 2001. And while he was deeply committed to his company and its work, Rebecca said he was even more deeply committed to his family, including his daughter, Leah Grace, 8, and his son, Michael, 5.

"He was the most amazing father," Rebecca, who submitted her husband for inclusion in Patch's Virtual Coronavirus Memorial. "He loved his babies endlessly."

While Michael was known for his dedication to his customers — "Even in the hospital he was still taking calls," Rebecca said — he was equally committed to his family.

Leah rides horses. "He was her biggest fan. He never missed a show," Rebecca said. The family would slip away to a little beach on the Toms River, just up the street from their home, where Michael would sit and watch the kids play.

"He loved to do that," Rebecca said. "There was this sense of peace that would come over him. You could see the calm, and all the stresses of work go away when he watched them do something they loved."

"He loved to show us off," she said. Each year, Michael would rent a bus and throw a big trip to a New York Yankees game for all of his adjusters, but Rebecca and the kids were a central part of it.

"There's a picture on my Facebook, just the way he’s looking at me you can see how much he loved me," she said.

At the same time, Michael was "the most humble man I've ever known," Rebecca said. "He built the business from the ground up" from nothing but hard work. Michael and his four siblings were raised by their mother, Grace, by herself, and he didn't go to college.

It was a future he didn't want for his children. He didn't want them to go without, especially when it comes to education.

"He has taken care of their college," Rebecca said. "It's all paid for." His reasoning: "I don’t want them to struggle."

"Whatever they want to be when they grow up their daddy is proud of them," she said.

"It's incredible what he did. He had nothing," Rebecca said. But he built a successful business because he was so committed to his customers. "I always used to tell him people don’t realize you’re not a machine. But he loved what he did."

Rebecca said she knew he loved her and his family even more. His commitment to them was no more evident than in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. The family's home in Green Island was flooded with 6 feet of water, and Sandy left a boat sitting in the street.

"We were living in my parents' basement," Rebecca said. Michael went to work every day, helping area residents get rid of water, damaged materials and mold in their homes, working long days and long hours.

"He kept trudging along, making sure his customers were taken care of," she said. "He never complained that he didn't have a home to go to."

Even as Michael was helping his customers, however, he was finding a solution for his own family: On Dec. 22, 2012, the couple, who had been married 10 years when he died, closed on a new home.

"He didn’t want us to not have a home for Christmas, especially Leah's first Christmas," Rebecca said; Leah was just 6 months old at the time. "He always took care of us."

His hard work allowed her to stay home with the kids.

"He didn't want me working in the office," Rebecca said. "He didn't want me stressing. He blessed me by allowing me to focus on the children."

Michael's commitment to the job and his customers continued in the pandemic.

"During COVID he was making sure all the police departments were sanitized, all the first responders," she said. Michael made sure St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church was sanitized and safe for parishioners and the church personnel.

"He loved everyone," Rebecca said. "He never stopped caring about everyone."

"He always had such a rough exterior, but really he was the softest person. I called him my rough tough creampuff," she said. "Only the lucky ones really got to see how soft his soul was."

"He was wonderful husband and an amazing father to our two young children," Rebecca wrote in her tribute to Michael on Patch. "He is greatly missed and our lives are forever changed."

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