Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Andy

He was a brat as a kid- willful, tough, a little mean and he would bully his older brother. He was blessed, more than anything, with perfect parents. His parents were always there for him and they were always on his case: expecting better grades, better behavior, harder work. And they gave him all the love and attention he could handle.

With any other parents he would have gone very bad. He was stubborn enough to get his way with anyone else and had to be taught over and over again to think of others. But with perfect parents, he learned.

He grew into a young man- handsome, polite, athletic. He was a good kid. His senior year at highschool he was an all-state running back. I took the family to watch one of his games here in Portland.

When we'd get together, I'd tease him- try to talk him into college or the military or anything. Once he decided what he wanted to do, he'd be amazing. But Andy was in no hurry to decide. He enjoyed his friends and fishing and hunting and his family and barbecues and beer and his motorcycle. He liked his life just as it was.

Andy Michaelis died yesterday. He was my nephew.

I called his mother as soon as I heard. She asked the ancient question: "How do we go on?"

"You love the ones you have left."

Love the ones you have left.

4 comments:

Kami said...

I love you.

The Moody Minstrel said...

Rory, for better or worse (but with best wishes), I put a post on Kami's blog you may or may not want to read. It is related to this issue, and for reasons that will be obvious I do not want to reiterate it here.

Kai Jones said...

I'm very sorry for your family's loss. May his memory be a comfort to all the mourners.

Angie said...

Hi Rory. Kami gave me the link to your blog (as well as hers), so I was checking it out. I'll have to check your blog periodically to see what you are doing. I wanted to thank you for the post about Andy. As I told Kami, it is soothing to me somehow to hear everyone's stories about Andy. I guess it keeps the memories alive.
It was great to see you all again, even if under bad circumstances. We'll be in Bend for Christmas, so hopefully we will see you if you are around.
Love, Angie