Ode To Mike

It is with a heavy heart I post this today. Last night I got an email from Lefty that I read at midnight Spain time. Our friend Mike Bleakney had been one of the casualties of that horrific train/bus collision in Ottawa.  That news sank in immediately and I cried. In a lower bunk, in a room filled with twenty other people, but I couldn't help it. This was a huge totally unfair loss for this world. 

Mike and I were not best friends, we did not chum around together on a regular basis. We certainly knew each other well and partied along the line at university. But we went years without seeing each other. About two years ago we reconnected on Facebook, and anyone that is his FB friend knows that he posts regularly. Funny, witty, oddball, thoughtful, provocative things. We had an big connection on that end. Mike challenged other people, including myself, too see through the bullshit and understand an issue, but was comfortable with other people having their own views. That is not common.

Mike and I met for a few beers back in May when he was in Toronto, down at the Duke of Kent. We both loved beer and scotch, but Mike had a bit more discipline than me. Catching up on his life and the changes he had made over the past few years, it was uncanny how similar the paths we were following. Weight loss, biking, opening of our minds and hearts to other ways of doing things, to other views. Mike was ahead of me in that department, and when I went home that night I told Mary Lou what an absolutely wonderful man Mike was. A gentle soul.

Mike has been following the blog and Facebook of the Camino journey, both before and after we left, often sent comments and encouragement, and the last post was reminding me that it wasn't the distance we covered in a day that was important. He has so many friends from our hometown Fredericton that have been cut to the core on this, shows just what a person he was. 

I am heartbroken, pissed off, bewildered about how this could happen. I can only imagine what those closest to him are feeling, and I offer my most heartfelt condolences. I am sitting here alone in the square by the Leon cathedral, not understanding the why. By chance we have an extra stone selected by my big brother Mike from Little Macguadavic Lake, New Brunswick. The tradition is that at Cruz de Lion, the highest point on the Camino, you leave a stone that represents something of personal significance to you on a pile where thousands of pilgrims have done it before you. We are already carrying two other special stones that we will leave, with a prayer. Mike, the third will be left for you. Goodbye to a good man.

    Borrowed from Mikes Facebook page.