The news of Michael’s death was so shocking. I am so saddened and deeply sorry. I had heard of Michael over the years and knew he was a great friend to my daughter Molly. It seemed like they could always count on each other for support and a reality check. When Molly and I started to go to the Cape in August a few years ago with Michael, I had the great fortune to get to know what a wonderful person he was. We had so many laughs. I could see how much Molly and Michael cared for each other and the depth of their friendship was impressive. I also got to know how loyal and dedicated he was to family. He spoke a lot of his mother and father and I know was a wonderful son. Molly and I will never forget Michael. Sometimes when I look at photos like the ones I attach I still can’t believe he is gone. We will always keep his memory alive.

Dear Michael,

These are just some of the many reasons that I loved you and am grateful that we shared eighteen months of our lives together:

• For the wonderful gourmet meals you cooked for me.
• For the way you invented innumerable vegetarian dishes for me, despite your never-ending determination to transform me back into a carnivore someday.
• For having used every conceivable holiday (and awards show) as an excuse to plan and execute a thematic menu.
• For having taken me twice to the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco--and for not having chided me about overindulging in the chocolate.
• For your insistence that I called you whenever I returned home, just so you could know that I got back safely.
• For your gorgeous poetry and stories that you courageously shared with me.
• For the heartfelt and wildly inventive poetry you wrote especially for me.
• For having gone out of your way to find gifts that couldn’t have been more appropriate for me—even though I hadn’t even known of their existence before you found them for me.
• For having let me voraciously read your issues of Consumer Reports.
• For the way you loved and honored your family, its history, and your relationships with family members.
• For your enduring love for every episode in the ten year run of Friends—and your ability to connect specific episodes to events that would happen in my life.
• For having assertively (yet somehow gently) supervised the food truck vendors at Meghan’s high school graduation party.
• For your ambitious career goals—and for your ambitious career goals for me.
• For having taken me to see two amazing authors speak in San Francisco.
• For having brought the kitten into my life (the first cat I’ve ever cared about).
• For the way you trusted me with your grief for your father, your grandmother, and your brother.
• For having introduced me to the practice of buttering pizza crust.
• For the way you compete at the gym for a place on your favorite treadmill with the elderly Clarence.
• For your exquisite banana pudding.
• For having filled my stocking to overflowing on Christmas.
• For having had the temerity to write to the editors of the food section of the San Jose Mercury News to tell them that you had ideas that they should listen to about how to improve their publication.
• For having enjoyed Blue Line Pizza, Ike’s Sandwich Shop, and Aldo’s Café as much as I do.
• For the way you asserted yourself as my chief health advocate with my eccentric dermatologist.
• For the way you would take over in my sister’s kitchen.
• For having great taste in red wines.
• For Saturday mornings with you and radio chef Melinda Lee.
• For Sunday mornings with you, Prairie Home Companion, and The New York Times.
• For the handsome way you looked when you opened the door to welcome me.
• For your uncanny ability in our music trivia game to name the singers of pop songs from the 70s and 80s.
• For having celebrated Jewish holidays with me.
• For having whipped up an impromptu dinner for my friend Joe and his new husband.
• For the way you pack for trips with more luggage than would ever be necessary.
• For having insisted that I take off a day of work to go with you to get your mole removed.
• For the way you watched over your father in the final weeks of his life, guarding him as much as you could.
• For having so lovingly and selflessly helped me to prepare a cheese plate and other appetizers and drinks for the one year memorial of my loved one.
• For having done so again before my friends’ engagement party.
• For pushing me to cook even when I didn’t want to, and for pretending to enjoy my attempts at stroganoff and peach cobbler.
• For the way you looked at me (when I don’t think you knew that I was seeing you look at me).
• For having insisted that I place prominently in my home photographs of you and me.
• For our shared love of reading.
• For having shared your Encino home and all of its memories with me.
• For having known before I even met you who Rosanne Cash and Robbie Williams were.
• For having challenged me in a way that no one ever had before, pushing me to be more aware of the needs of others.
• For having freed me to be more my true self than I have ever been.
• For being a good and decent human being.
• For having made my life nothing short of wonderful.

Love,

Steve