Good-Bye, My Special Friend

by Sue Thompson

The angels came down from heaven sometime in the early eve on Monday,

Because it was time for the pain to stop and to take my friend Mike away.

Please help me now, Lord, to share some memories because he really was one of a select few.

He was a man who loved his family more than anything else in life.

They were always kept close in his heart; son Ryan, daughter Erin, and Dee, his wife.

He had a deep abiding faith in God. Church was deeply ingrained in his life.

Which I truly believe is what kept him going in these last months of great strife.

We talked many times about his time as a Green Beret,

and how hard it must have been on his mom as her sons went away.

The day he married Dee, he inherited not only Harold and Irene,

but another brother and three sisters you see.

He once said that with those three ornery girls

you never knew what was to come or what was to be.

He was very proud of our faculty and school with all the classes;

music, band, and sports offered here.

He loved watching Erin and Ryan participate.

Those are memories he will hold forever dear.

He shared a very special bond with friends; Todd, Darrell, John, and Jim.

He thought the world of them and they of him.

I remember watching him give money to needy kids so that they could eat.

And giving his own clothes and shoes to cover their bodies and feet.

My most vivid memory of him is the day he saw bruises on a boy who had been beat

and thanked God that person he would never did meet.

Mike loved being a coach whether it would be basketball with J.K.

or baseball with Karl. He enjoyed each and every day.

He was ornery, proud, and very, very stubborn and he worked hard every day.

But you know sometimes it was just easier to give in and let him have his way.

He was every kid's hero and everyone's friend.

But the special friendship we shared even death cannot end.

For he'll be here in dribbling basketballs, he'll be in the clouds at a track meet.

Or in the wind at a football game, and he always did enjoy baseball's summer heat.

Today, God, we gave you one of our best.

And I thank you for having him be part of my life.

He left behind a great legacy for us all

in son Ryan, daughter Erin, and Dee, his wife.