An
unfortunate side effect of life is that we have to deal with death, and today I
am mourning the loss of my friend Mike. While
Mike’s death was not unexpected, I am nevertheless filled with sadness to know
that someone for whom I have so much respect and affection is no longer with
us.
Mike
is someone who I have had the good fortune of knowing for the vast majority of
my life. In fact, I don’t remember the
exact year Mike and I met (although I bet he would have!); all I know is the
first time I saw him I was just a pesky little kid and he was the funny, happy guy
marrying my aunt’s best friend Casey.
To
some who read this, the guy marrying the friend of someone’s aunt may seem a
bit distant in terms of friendship, but Casey isn’t just my aunt’s friend –
she’s part of our family. So,
essentially, Mike was the guy marrying into my family, and, thankfully, he fit
right in!
Mike
was a sweet, funny, thoughtful and incredibly smart person with a thirst for
knowledge and a wicked sense of humor.
If you ever wanted to win a Trivial Pursuit game, you wanted him on your
team. He possessed more factoids about
more things than most of the people I know put together. Mike was also very creative occupying his
free time working in his garage tooling beautiful things out of wood. Last year, he made us beautiful Christmas
ornaments and each had its own unique story.
In our case, the ornament he gave to Chad and me was made of pink ivory
wood that was considered so precious by the Zulus that mere possession of it
was punishable by death…and I have a sneaking suspicion that he got a kick out
of the idea of giving a lawyer something considered illegal.
In
addition to making intricate things out of wood, thankfully, Mike was always
game for a home project (although Casey claims our home projects were met with
much more enthusiasm than her “honey do” list).
In recent years, all Chad and I had to do was mention that we wanted
something built and he was on it. The
next thing we would know, Mike would be crawling around on the floor measuring
things and taking notes and, in what seemed like record time, our dreams were
reality. We “employed” him with lunches
and drinks. No matter how big or small
the project, he always attacked it with excitement. In fact, the last time we saw Mike before he
got sick, he and Chad were upstairs discussing the built-in cabinets we wanted
in our den. Unfortunately, Mike never
got to start that project, but I imagine he had great plans in the works.
Happily, I am the recipient of one of Mike's final projects, which I will treasure. Here's my new hammerhead shark:
As
I contemplated what I wanted to write, I “googled” quotes about woodworking and
I found this one. It seems apropos.
“Have
thy tools ready. God will find thee work.” -Charles Kingsley
I
will miss you, Mikey.
