The other night when I sat down to write a "journal of the day", and again when I wrote about Mikie, it was for me. Being a "tough ass Irish guy", whom emotions are not a "public side" of, I was sitting in my "pit", just me , the keyboard, and my memories. My intent and indeed my deep desire was to write to Mikie,...not you. To tell him what he meant to me, personally, and to open my own feelings to an "ether-world", not to write to you.
But a strange thing happened, a number of you read my entry, and wrote me very kind notes on it. And I must say I am so pleased I can not tell you. I used to mention my "blog" to Mikie, who gave me shit about it all the time. He used to tease me about it, and shoot a zippy one-liner every time he had a chance. He used to say things like, "Yeah, like you're a Hemingway, shit probably only perv's and whacko's do that shit!", and "Who really gives a shit what you think?". Occasionally he would give me crap about using the blog for "internet sex", and I'd tell him he was nuts,...a really dumb shit if he thought I was that "kind of person". He really knew how to push my buttons in terms of getting "my Irish" up. But by the same token he really knew me and knew that was not the fact, and every once in a while he'd ask, "You still writing that stupid 'blog" shit?"
When I e-mailed our buddy "Security Guard Mike" about Mikies passing I mentioned the blog so he could read the details for himself. My wife married him and his wife a couple years ago, Mikie was thier "adopted son". I can't count the times he and "Security Guard Mike" wrestled and played like brothers, and the number of times Mikie slept on thier couch becasue he couldn't move any further. But that was Mikie.
I guess my ramblings have come down to this. Mikie is gone. We all know it. We are all trying to get all the "shit" done so we can take care of him. I've had at least twenty-five people call or write and tell me they will take a "piece of the action" for whatever it takes to give Mikie a send-off even he'd blush and be "Irish" about (self deprecating, humble, and totally overwhelmed). So here's the plan.
I talked to Vince, his roomy, today, and Mikie, true to being Mikie, left no history, no papers, not follow-up "stuff". He left this world just like he came in, quiet, and alone. So I've set the deadlines, (NO PUN INTENDED) , if I can not find his sister and talk to her by Wednesday, I'm going to have a buddy, who is an attorney, to whatever the shit has to be done to make me his "next of kin". I've already contacted the National Cremation Society and for a price, they will pick up his remains, take them and have them cremated, return the death certificate and Mikie's ashes to us (i.e. me as legally responsible for him). I will set a date in the next two weeks and ask everyone who loved him to join us at "The Whales Tail", and we will all spend a moment in silence, and then I'll ask each person to silently scatter some of Mikie's ashes into the surf, along the beach , or into the air. (The Whales Tale is a beach bar, right on the Gulf of Mexico where Mikie spent untolled hours just relaxing, talking with locals, tourists, and anyone else who happened by.) I would then ask everyone to have a shot of Samboucca and salute our friend who is now amongst the stars. End of service, end of ceremony. Go home, take your memories of Mikie, and miss him the way we all will.
I went to the Florida State/Boston College football game yesterday and I took the other love of my life, my wife Barbara. Mikie was supposed to go with me.
We watched the game, and the final play of the game where a Boston College player reached up into the air, amidst a sea of other players and snagged the ball, with one hand, and tucked it in as the play clock hit "zero". One arm out of about twenty in that pile of players. The first win for Boston College, Mikies own home town, over Florida State University, bragging rights for the "guys from New England" for the next year!
If I were a supersticious dude, I'd really wonder if Mikie did not have a "hand" in it,....telling us he's ok, he's gone beyond, he misses us as we him, but the world goes on, even without him.
Thanks Mikie, we appreciate the win, we appreciate the "final word" from the other side".
God bless you , and love you, ... for he sure knows we did!
-30-
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Even in the midst of your grief, just from the way you write and who and what you are... I know that you're going to be okay.
It's a good thing what you're doing for Mikie and it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest bit if he did have a "hand" in that football game.
I think that God, sometimes, pulls the curtain back that separates heaven from earth and lets them intercede, quietly, on our behalf. Whether it is to give comfort, peace, security, or perhaps just a reminder that we too, are loved and missed.
*Hugs* Mr. G - you've got a friend across the cold screen of your computer if you need anything.
Hey Alec, I'm sorry to hear about Mikie. If what I feel about my friends now is only after 10 years of friendship I can't imagine what it must be for you.
I think he was a lucky man to have you as a friend.
The football game ending sounds like something out of Angels in the End Zone. Mikie sounds like he was and still is a wonderful spirit. And I'll say it again with the way you describe him I am sure he is having the time of his afterlife and is very grateful of everything you and everyone else are doing. Maybe he'll hook up with my grandpa and go to a few college games together and sit on the opposing side cheering for the other team.
Post a Comment