The Best Mike Ever

Our dear friend Mike passed away on Monday, April 13th, after a sudden and stunningly short illness.

I first met Laura about 14 years ago when she started working where I worked. We quickly became friends. She had moved here from Ohio hoping to make a fresh start. I don’t think she had really thought too much about including romance in that, but then a very wise woman who we worked with said she knew someone who was perfect for Laura and would she think about going out with him? Laura kind of hemmed and hawed. She was a little worried because he was so much older and had grown children and she had a lot going on, having just started a new job and a new life. But she finally agreed to a date with this guy Mike. I remember her saying after that date, “Wow, I didn’t know I would like him so much!” And from then on they were together all the time.

Things had gotten pretty serious when, as sometimes happens in the course of true love, Mike decided he needed a little time to think. That night, Laura and I fortified ourselves with heaps of chocolate, a tear-jerker movie and way too much cheap wine, and waited and waited for the phone to ring. It never did, but finally a bell did ring - the door bell. When I answered it, there was Mike. I yelled at him “What took you so long??!!!!” He looked a little taken aback, but said “I am here to see my girl.” I don’t know exactly what he said to her, but a few months later, Mike and Laura were married in a beautiful ceremony full of friends, family, flowers and so much love.

A year or so later, Charlie and I got married. Luckily for all of us he was really into NASCAR and he and Mike bonded immediately over cars. We had lots of dinners where Laura and I would talk about work and Mike and Charlie would have a parallel conversation about Dale and Junior and Jeff. Sometimes Laura and I would talk about how amazing it was that, when she and I met we were two single women who weren’t even dating, and now we were married to the loves of our lives. We had many dinners over the years and Mike and Laura were always there for all the important things in our life, just like they were for so many people. Their love and caring were always there for all of us, along with Mike’s very special sense of humor.

Mike and Laura were partially responsible for the wonderful family that Charlie and I have now. They were so happy and proud when their son and daughter in law, Gary and Laura, started on the process to adopt Chloe from China. It’s all they could talk about and that turned out to be the push we needed to start down our own path to adoption. One of my favorite pictures of Mike is of him and another grandpa holding their new grandchildren in China. The look on his face is just priceless.

The night we signed the paperwork that started us on our journey to our oldest daughter, it was Mike and Laura that we celebrated with. They were both so supportive and helpful to us throughout all our adoptions, though I know they thought we were a little (okay, a lot) crazy when we started our third one. But that didn’t stop them from helping with our house and dogs and whatever we needed while we were in China. One time they had the keys to our car so they could pick us up at the airport. Mike just couldn’t help himself - he detailed the car while we were gone!

Mike and Laura had the kind of relationship that many people dream of and not so many people get to have. They were truly soulmates. Their prior life experiences had brought them to the places they were in their lives and when they met, they were ready for each other. They fit each other so well. Good times or bad, they faced them together, a strong and invincible team.

I never knew Mike without Laura and didn’t know her all that long before she became half of “Mike and Laura.” Really, that should be one word, MikeandLaura, because that's how we usually thought of them. They were one.....two halves of a whole. Together they had such a large and loving circle of family and friends and we are honored to be part of that. It’s so hard to think of them apart in body here on Earth, but we all know that they will be together again some day, and that knowledge will hopefully help keep Laura, and all of us, going.

Mike was one of a kind. It’s impossible to picture his face without seeing him with a big smile. He liked to make very bad jokes. He was one of the most genuinely nice people you could ever hope to meet and he always found such joy in life. He so loved his family, his friends, his pets and most of all his girl, Laura.

We will always miss Mike. Our kids just loved him, too. When he got sick, Annie wanted to write her own message in the guestbook on their website. She wrote “Mike, you are the best Mike ever.” That pretty much says it all.