Mike was truly an 'original.' Always smiling. Always trying to get a smile and a laugh out of you. He was my wife's older brother. The catch word is 'was.' This Sunday while attending our daughter's basketball tournament in Seattle, I encountered the scenario that every spouse dreads. Watching the expression of someone we love receive the news that something horribly wrong has happened. The cry of angst from my wife and the painful reverberation of hearing Mike's name as the body breaks down into panic stricken sobs is forever imbedded in my memory circuits. If life is an insane asylum, then Mike will always be "Martini,' the role played by Danny DeVito in Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." He had the same physique, with the dark inquisitive eyes and always the childlike wonder of the world. He was just 51 years old and leaves behind his wife Pauline and daughter Rachel who just last month graduated from Newberg High School. It serves a poignant reminder how quickly one close to us can suddenly walk out of our life forever. In a physical sense.

Nobody loved the practical joke or the attention more than Mike. He loved fishing but more important loved talking with anyone. His generousity was legendary. If he had a dollar to his name he'd make sure to give you two dollars after hitting up another friend for a dollar loan. He suffered from neurofibromatosis which caused constant health issues he gamely battled for his life. He never complained. In fact he turned lifes unfair turns into a reason to celebrate. My favorite was five years ago when a group of us took a cruise to Mexico and he brought his family just weeks after undergoing major heart surgery. During a day at sea, the cruise line had a "Hairy Chest Contest" out along the pool and all the women based on their cheering would deduce the winner. Imagine ten tanned male models and one Danny Devito who was last in line. The women were cheering each adonis and Mike's name was finally called as the last contestant and he ripped off his shirt revealing the fresh gleaming red scars and stitching as if he'd been mauled by a grizzly bear and shaved hairless chest to boot. For an instant, the women along the pool went dead silent with shock and then they saw Mike with that disarming cheshire grin and before you knew it, they were screaming their heads off as Mike was declared the "Winner." The cruise line showed that contest over and over on their closed circuit for the duration of the cruise and Mike would proudly beam.

Everyone has religion in some way, shape or form in their hour of need. To cling to hope and embrace faith.  I always embraced the line that Morgan Freeman spoke in "Shawshank Redemption" with "get busy living or get busy dying' and with that and the assurance that Mike would give a thumbs up and cheshire grin, we played that Sunday morning and were eliminated in the semi-finals of the consolation bracket. In the gym just next to ours, Southridge was playing but they too would meet an untimely ending. One of the great wildcards in life is the 'idiot.' Far worse idiots drive drunk or rise to become rulers to declare genocide. In this case, the idiots took the same court where we had just minutes ago played in the gym next to Southridge. An idiot parent charged the court and went after an opposing coach. As we drove down the road from the high school, we watched a stream of police cars with lights and sirens blow past us not knowing why. Little did we know they were headed to break up the melee happening on the court where minutes earlier we had watched our saddened daughter play while parents and players hugged my wife to give comfort. The games were called and the gym was closed.  I guess in the balance of life that compassion must be offset with blind rage and ignorance.  

I don't know why some religions are big proponents of the "Open Viewing" at a funeral service but we'll have one.  I'd like to let Mike know, if we could call the shots when the Service is held this week, I'd go with his sly practical joke and have him 'standing' in the lobby with a cheshire grin and hand extended greeting those in to pay their last respects. Some may not find the humor as not everyone 'got' Mikes distorted sense of humor but I always did. Of all the contests and competitions I've enjoyed and endured over the years, the one that will always bring a smile to my face it the one Mike entered against all odds and won and for that one instant was "King of the World."  I can hear Al Michael's voice excitedly announcing that "Hairy Chest" contest and yelling "Do you believe in miracles" and a man now departed standing amongst muscled young men looking at him and suddenly realizing their own mortality as he stood there in the Mexican sun just smiling with a cheshire grin.