By ROBERTO ACOSTA, The Flint Journal

DAVISON, Mich. (AP) — The plan had been set.

After the school day, Sept. 18 at Gates Elementary in Davison Township, teacher Steve Culbert was set to hand-deliver invitations at Genesys Health Park for a daddy-daughter dance to former students Avery and Alivia Reece who were bedside with their father Luke.

However, on the day Culbert was to deliver the invitations to the girls, he received a message at work.

"That was the last night they were going to get to see him," Culbert told The Flint Journal . "The next day, they were going to take him off life support."

Luke Reece, who enjoyed working in the yard and flower beds, playing baseball and golf, died Sept. 19. He was 32 years old.

"It is still like...I can't believe it," said Shelley Reece, Luke Reece's wife. "This is not supposed to have happened."

She noted her husband wound up in the hospital Aug. 27 after feeling out of sorts for a few days with shortness of breath "and just getting really winded when he walked."

It was discovered Luke Reece had a Protein C deficiency that led to multiple blood clots forming in his body, including the legs and lungs, which came as a surprise to the couple married in 2010 after dating for two years.

He then suffered cardiac arrest three days later on Aug. 30, the same day he was supposed to be moved out of the intensive care unit at the Grand Blanc Township facility.

He never regained consciousness.

While Luke Reece lay in the hospital bed, Culbert would come in to visit, bringing items for the children and occasionally taking them for a smoothie "just to get them away from things."

During one of those visits and after speaking with his wife Katie about the possibility, Culbert asked if he could invite the girls to the daddy-daughter dance that Shelley Reece said her husband never missed.

"For sure that was something that Luke always looked forward to," she said. They went to the event for the last four years. "He got as much out of it as the girls did. He was a character."

Luke Reece took part in all the girl's activities, acting as the "gymnastics dad," she said, as well as coaching and taking the stage during one of their dance recitals with other fathers, to the crowd's delight.

The couple had gotten to know Culbert during school parties and parent-teacher conferences as Avery was in his second-grade class during the 2017-18 school year and Alivia for the first month of the current school year before Culbert was moved to a different classroom.

He became a teacher later in life after having two daughters and interacting with them and their school work.

"I'm a teacher because I knew where I need to be and knew what I wanted to do finally," commented Culbert. "I love my students and from day one, I tell my students they are family...You can't just say it, you have to live it."

Having a brother who died of cancer in 1984 when Culbert was only 11 years old, he encourages his students to give their parents a hug when they visit the classroom.

"You never know," he said. "Don't ever miss a moment."

He'd noticed early in the new school year when Shelley Reece attended an open house in August that her husband was not with her and informed Culbert of the situation.

"The next morning is when she let me know he was in the hospital and he was even worse," said Culbert, beginning the visits soon after with Shelley Reece's permission until her husband's death.

To Shelley's Reece's appreciation, the community that had rallied around the Reece family during her husband's illness continued after his death.

"I'm speechless for all the people that have reached out to us," she said, including friends and co-workers, local businesses and complete strangers.

Those same people pitched in with donations to pay for dresses for Avery and Alivia, corsages, hairdos, and a limousine for the dance that Culbert and his two daughters, Hailey and Aliyah, rode to North Branch.

The dance happened to fall on the same day their father's sister was getting married in Lapeer County, which afforded the chance to surprise the girls who were part of the ceremony.

"They didn't know until they rolled up there," said Shelley Reece. "They're like 'Oh my gosh, a limo."

Before departing that night, the girls and Culbert released five red balloons, with the phrase #belikeluke etched on them in marker.

The hashtag was created as a remembrance of his lasting spirit, which Culbert said including being an organ donor, with some already helping. "That's what inspires me," he said.

"If you met Luke, he was just special. You just wouldn't forget him," said Shelley Reece.

"You'd just meet him and you'd love him instantly."

The girls and Culbert visited a playground and had breakfast at Tim Horton's in Lapeer and later danced the night away at Hanh Intermediate School, with ice cream at McDonald's to boot afterward.

"I just want to thank Mr. Culbert and everybody for making sure the girls had a night to remember," said Shelley Reece.

"It's just so good that someone outside of the home is looking out from them," she added, with her daughters crafting a thank you card to Culbert reading, in part: "Thank you for bringing my smile back."

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Information from: The Flint Journal, http://www.mlive.com/flint

An AP Member Exchange shared by The Flint Journal.