How do I know? You ask? Oh well you can be having a great day. A sunny in Seattle day. A day where there are birds chirping, daffodil blooming, warm breeze coming through your new front screen door. It can be a day that it doesn't bother you that the windows are in serious need of a wash.
Then:
A phone call out of the blue letting you know a dear friend has died. The very friend that has been on your mind because a mutual friend had died and you didn't want to tell him about his passing.
I have had people in my life that have very short lists of friends and people in their life. They sort of hide away and keep to themselves. I always thought that would be a lonely sort of place. Losing the people that have touched your lives in a special way is also very lonely.
Mikie was a part of our entire Ballard house life. He had a little dog named Betty Boop and all the matching items one would imagine of a great queen. He planted and fussed and cleaned around the place. He talked to everyone, he fed all the dogs treats, he painted, installed new doors, he went on endless walks with us and commented on every sort of event in the neighborhood.
He was a funny little thing but he was a great friend. A bit clueless sometimes about lots of things like giving my roll of butcher paper away when he moved because he figured if I let him use it to wrap his stuff, I didn't want it back ..... but I loved him. Mary-Elizabeth loved him. The whole neighborhood loved him. His presence is woven into our lives with bits of shiny pottery, a beautiful chair, a fun pot, a well planted traffic circle.
He added great beauty to anywhere that he touched. I have been looking for my pictures of him or of the Ken Cake we made him for his birthday. Right now they are not easily available but had Mike been with me, he would have loved seeing the baby hummingbirds.
He was loved. He will be missed. The world is a lesser place because he is no longer here. He and Dad can smoke small cigars together in Heaven.
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