The teenage son of Republican party activist Jeff Timmer and his wife Mattie has died “unexpectedly,” according to a statement from The Lincoln Project. He was 18 years old.
The statement read, “We are devastated by the tragic death of our youngest child. Mekbul Timmer was a high school senior and loved and admired by everyone who knew him. Please just love your kids and those close to you.”
Timmer lived with his family in Portland, Michigan, which is located 25 miles northwest of Lansing. In addition to his parents, Timmer is survived by his siblings, Maggie, Mary, Joe, and Grace.
According to his father’s Facebook page, Jeff Timmer is a senior advisor to The Lincoln Project, a group of Republican Party activists who opposed Donald Trump’s presidency and is the co-founder of Republicans & Independents for Biden.
Timmer’s mother is a Michigan State University graduate and is the president of Two Rivers Public Relations, a political consulting firm in Michigan.
Timmer’s sister called his tragic passing ‘unexpected’
While Timmer’s cause of death has not been made public, his sister, Maggie, said in a Facebook post that his passing was “unexpected.”
Timmer attended St. Patrick’s School, a high school in Portland, Michigan, for a time. In August 2021, his mother posted a photo showing him playing soccer at the high school level. It’s not clear if he was a senior at St. Patrick’s at the time of his death.
Timmer would have turned 19 in April 2022.
Like the rest of his family, Mekbul Timmer was active in local theater
The Timmer family is involved in amateur theater in Portland, Michigan. According to the website for the Portland Civic Players, all of Jim and Mattie Timmer’s children have performed in productions for the group as well as being involved in Portland Civic Players Summer Youth Theater Program and fundraising efforts for the theater.
In December 2018, Timmer’s sister, Mary, sang the national anthem prior to the Detroit Lions game against the Los Angeles Rams at Ford Field, reported The Portland Beacon at the time.
Mary Timmer told the Beacon, “I have been singing as long as I can remember. I started participating in shows with Portland Civic Players with their musicals each year and in summer theater.”
In July 2019, Maggie Timmer wrote in a Facebook post of her pride in her brother completing a summer theater program for the first time without any of his siblings. She wrote, “He’s grown a lot in the past couple years, both physically and as a person.”
Mattie Timmer had a sense of humor about raising five children
Mattie Timmer joked in a love letter blog to her husband on their 30th wedding anniversary, “5 kids. All wonderful and perfect and, you know, all stressful little Aholes who can suck the life right out of you. We failed them sometimes. We love them always. Maybe when they go to therapy they won’t only talk about us?”
While in November 2021, Mattie Timmer tweeted, “It’s National Adoption Awareness Month. Jeff Timmer & I know undeniably that we’re on the receiving end of the gift of adoption, not the other way around. Our son brings value wherever he goes & we get to be there.”