For two months, Dr. Michael Collerans family watched him battle a virus that can start with symptoms that look a lot like the flu.
KSBY spoke with those closest to Colleran, who lived in Paso Robles but practiced in San Luis Obispo. They are remembering the San Luis Obispo dentist not for how he died, but for the humor, kindness and strength he showed throughout his life.
I mean, its just half of yourself gone and trying to figure out how to keep going on without that other half, said Cyndee Colleran, Dr. Collerans wife.
For 40 years, Michael and Cyndee Colleran were a team. Now, shes learning how to live without her other half.
The San Luis Obispo dentist was known for making people smile, and not just in his chair.
Although, growing up it kind of annoyed me a little bit like, Oh! Cmon, just be serious, Dad! You know, but I appreciate that more and more now, said Collerans son Sean Colleran.
Always cracking jokes, Cyndee said. It was kind of hard to get him to focus on a serious conversation, you know, I would have to say, Look at me and focus on what Im saying to you!
But in late August, the laughter gave way to fear.
Days after a trip to Anaheim, California, Collerans wife says her husband became sick. What began with flu-like symptoms quickly became something much more serious.
Then, Cyndee noticed something was really wrong.
We were just sitting right here on the couch, and he was talking, and he was talking about something that made absolutely no sense, and I was trying to understand, and he was trying to explain himself, and so I thought he had had a stroke, Cyndee said. That very night is when he wasnt able to speak anymore, and has been gone since then.
Colleran was eventually diagnosed with West Nile virus. His condition deteriorated, leaving the 63-year-old on life support.
After two months, Cyndee was faced with an unimaginable decision to let her best friend go.
Once I understood that and once the doctors said, This is his new normal, then we knew that we had to let him go, and that was a very painful process, but my son Sean was there with uswith me I still say us, because Mike and I had been a team for so long, Cyndee said.
Michael Colleran died Oct. 25.
But his family says the man they knew was more than a dentist. He was a dad who could fix more than just a broken tooth.
Hed see a problem and find the most basic solution, but it would work! Sean said. One of my side mirrors wasnt working properly; it wasnt staying in the right spot, and it kept going towards the car, so I couldnt use it, and so I was like, Hey, Dad, you know, Im having this issue, can you try and help me fix it? He took the gum out of his mouth and stuck it behind the mirror, and to this day, the mirror is perfect!
Its a story that captures the man they miss: funny, resourceful and always willing to help.
And his patients felt that connection, too.
He became a part of the family and, you know, when a person like that spends that much time inside your mouth, you know, over the years, you become family members! Collerans patient Kenny Lee Lewis said.
Now, his family is left grieving, while also facing financial challenges tied to renovations at Collerans practice following a 2024 fire.
A GoFundMe has been created to help the family.
I have been gutted! Cyndee said. My life, you know, its gonna be rough.
For the people who loved him, the loss is immeasurable. But so are the memories of the husband, father and dentist who spent his life making people smile.
That smile is now a memory theyll hold onto forever.