I always looked up to my cool big brother Mikey. He was my childhood playmate and when I think of being kids I think of Uncle Wiggly, Wahoo, Marbles, Monopoly, Trick or Treating (yes, he had to take his little sister along), walking me to school (until he was too cool for that) and making me laugh in church.
I trusted Mike. In fact, I remember him talking me into being his ice skating barrel and letting him jump over me in his ice skates! Now that is real trust--or just a little sister who would do anything to hang out with her big brother.
Due to circumstances beyond our control we didn’t get to spend our teen years together, but when I was 16 we had the opportunity to experience an adventurous week driving out to Seattle in his school bus turned into a camper. I remember Linda telling him that he better get me out there safely, or else! We laughed about that years later, and nonetheless, we drove across the country and really got to know each other again--a trip I will never forget.
As adults, Mike visited me in Minneapolis when he could, usually stopping on his way for his periodic visits to Florence. When he did, we spent most of our time making each other laugh. One time, when my girls were little, he used a barn toy chicken clucker behind his back and did a ventriloquist laugh in time with the clucking, and I giggle to myself to this day when I think about it, it was so funny!
Our relationship really grew when he move to Minneapolis and worked with my Husband John in the insurance business. He lived with us for 3 months and then moved to an apartment a mile away for several years. My kids got to know and love their “Uncey Mike” as he was a regular and welcome fixture at our dinner table. We had lots of fun nights out in this time period, and there were 2 separate occasions that are etched in my heart forever: New Years in Wausau with Linda and Ernie, when we sang our dinner orders and were so loud that they gave us our own dining room; and another with Linda, Mike and me that ended at Perkins, where we laughed so hard we cried, and none of us could eat our food. These were literally two of the funnest nights of my life that I will never forget. I am forever thankful for the time we had during Mike’s Minneapolis years, where we felt that we got back some of the years we lost.
Mike and I were fortunate enough to take some incredible trips to Hawaii together with the insurance company he and John worked for, and had a good laugh on one of them when he realized that he forgot to bring all of the pants he had set out for the trip. The next morning he and I went shopping for pants in a little beach community and then stopped at an Oceanside tiki hut bar. We figured it was noon somewhere and raised our glasses toward the sea with a toast to Helen, certain with the knowledge that she was smiling down on us at that moment.
I was so incredibly sad when he moved back out to Seattle, but we stayed very close across the miles. We spent many hours on the phone on a regular basis just shooting the bull, solving the world’s problems and agreeing that he and I pretty much had all the answers! I know that “The Answer Man” was one of his best nicknames! Mike was a very special part of my life and I feel so lucky to have had such great times with him. As the saying goes, “Our loss is Heaven’s gain” and I sure hope God has a good stock of orange popsicles on hand.
