Michael's Legacy

These are just some of the wonderful things that people have remembered about Michael.

• Sense of humor
• Big, easy infectious smile and laugh
• Heavy eyebrows, two crowns of “goofy” hair (drove him crazy), long eyelashes
• Generosity and caring
• Warmth and affection
• Acceptance, tolerance, patience, modesty
• Ability to find good in everyone and persevere under all circumstances
• Intellect and discipline
• Love of family, friends and children
• Love of adventure
• Love and appreciation of all the fine things in life
• Leadership
• Curiosity
• Dedication, enthusiasm, conscientiousness
• Truly genuine and kind, respectful manner
• Intelligence
• Drive, strategy
• Great friend
• Positive, inspiring, energetic
• Passion for discovery in travel, knowledge
• Sense of inspiration
• Warm heartedness
• Incredibly sweet, determined
• Insight, “a rising star”
• Integrity
• Comfort and joy of life
• Fairness, a team player
• Loyalty
• Determination - never took the easy route, no short cuts

What do you remember? Would you like to share your memories?

Our Memories and What's Forever Missed

“ Life brings tears, smiles and memories…
the tears dry, the smiles fade but the memories live forever..”

Childhood:

• Holding your breath as an infant, and passing out to prove a point
• Refusing to take a bath in your “terrible two’s” unless bribed
• Early display of negotiating skills with line “here’s the deal” when we tried to get you to do something you considered unappealing
• Ingenious “tell them it’s for my older brother” argument when we refused to buy you the larger Lego Pirate ship designed for an older age
• “Go to the bank machine and get some” argument when told “we haven’t the money to buy that”
• Your adversity to domestic rental cars on road trips… your car-sickness evaporated miraculously in a foreign auto
• Bloody noses at all the wrong times
• Your insistence in keeping everything, ergo “Packrat”; our many arguments re: making space in your room
• Your aversion to sailing – until we witnessed you solo in a dinghy in Lake Ontario at age 7 with ferries/commercial traffic whizzing by. Only time you were comfortable sailing was with friends - many years later - Sarah, in particular.
• Your love of “Les Miz” and our having to listen to you sing every song, daily, weekly, for months on end.
• Years of shooting hoops and playing catch in our Lonsdale backyard
• The time you accidentally “flushed” Mom’s Cartier watch down the toilet
• Piano lessons and how you hated to practice, but persevered
• Your love of small Mercedes dinky cars; your dismay at losing one so we used to buy dozens; somehow you always knew the “found” car was actually a replacement

Teens:

• Your aggressive and confident driving habits; how you always left the steering wheel “sweaty”
• Our sleepless nights waiting for you to “sneak home” in the wee hours
• Your future claim on our HH Mazda – was going to be “Your Car”
• The fun we had travelling everywhere; your patience “shopping”; love of good food, wine, excursions
• Visiting and spending time together in DC, at Georgetown; Lyon during your Study Abroad

Cottage:

• How tiny and colicky you were on arrival at Jack Lake; how afraid we were
• Just chilling, enjoying the lake, water sports, friends (Courts), good times
• Competitive scrabble, monopoly
• Years of drives playing geography games, making up puzzles and watching you in the rearview mirror as you slept among all the laundry, food, etc.
• Your love of water, boating, tubing, water-skiing

Caledon Ski Club:

• Teaching you to ski, mishaps on the tow-rope, T-bar and finally mastering the Chairlift
• Watching you surpass us in skiing skills in nano-seconds 
• Scurrying to save lunch tables for you/friends at Club
• Your frost-bitten cheeks

Palm Island, Florida and Disney World:

• Our favorite March Break destination for years
• Collecting sharks’ teeth, sand dollars and countless shells
• March Madness
• At Disney – waiting in line for hours only to have you declare you changed your mind or need to go to the bathroom!

Travelling:

• Your insatiable curiosity
• Wanderlust
• Ready to go anywhere, anytime
• Your lists of where you’ve been; where you want to go
• Your ear and talent for languages
• All “things” international appealed
• Your love of Europe and desire to live there at some point

Tennis:

• You were such a quick study
• How you preferred friendly competition versus OTA events
• How we used to bug you to have more of a killer instinct; you refused and fine-tuned your own version of high competitiveness
• Our pride in finding out your nickname was “The Gavel” at GU Club Tennis – the result of your ability to put your opponent “away”
• Your many hours and years of persevering and trying to teach Mom how to improve her game

College:

• Your determination and discipline in achieving high marks on the SAT and LSAT giving you options going forward; your rationale pro and con for each College choice
• Your dedication to completing all the applications, essays, etc
• Your excitement at receiving all your acceptances
• Your maturity in choosing amongst your many acceptances; having the guts to turn down Harvard for GU
• Your excitement for Study Abroad opportunities

Post-Graduation and New York:

• Our pride in your Graduation; our excitement in your accomplishments and future endeavors
• Graduation trip to Croatia/Tuscany – our last trip together – the joy of chilling by the pool in Croatia, Tuscany; walking the Dubrovnik wall; exploring the countryside and its small towns; celebrating the fruits of your hard work at College
• Your excitement in enjoying the summer with friends and travelling before moving to New York and starting you first “career job”
• Your excitement in meeting new colleagues at Deutsche Bank and your Fall 2007 post in London to “learn the ropes”
• Shopping with you  for new “work” clothes and thinking how handsome you were
• Beginning to research Law Schools with you for future reference – ultimately you thought you might want to diversify with a legal background
• The countless trips, days of searching for your New York apartment
• Your excitement in finding the perfect apartment  in the “hood” of your choice (West Village); 
• Days of cleaning, painting, shopping for, and then assembling furniture; checking out Fitness Centers
• Planning the logistics of your move from Toronto to New York

What We Miss the Most and always will:

• Your constant and infectious smile
• Your dry sense of humor
• Your laughter and the joy and purpose you brought to our life
• Your genuine affection, cuddling, teasing of one another
• Watching you read, endlessly
• Your “Oh baby..” expression when…
• Hearing your “Insert Vesna joke here…” comment and never really knowing what it meant and still don’t
• Your stubbornness but ultimate negotiation of things that mattered most to you
• Tousling your hair, being jealous of your long eyelashes
• You maturity, your drive and direction
• Your curiosity of all things, people and places
• Your many athletic interests
• Endless political dialogue
• Endless sports conversations
• Your “It’s me…” phone calls and messages
• Your emails, texts, your coming home to “veg”
• Good times in DC, NYC, Toronto, Hilton Head, anywhere and everywhere
• Being your partner – be it theatre, music ,dining, sports, movies, travel, everything
• Spending time with you and your friends
• Photos, photos, photos – how we drove you crazy always wanting to take pictures – how patient and generous you were to put up with us.  How glad we are now to have them. How much we miss and are saddened by the fact that there are no “new” photos to come
• Living your dreams, your future
• Everything about you and/or we all would have shared and enjoyed.

“Mourning is Love with no place to go..”

Mom,

I just want you to really know how much you mean to me and how helpful you were tonight. You listened well and knew what to say and really calmed me down and got me focused. The situation is unfortunate but if worst comes to worst it has taught me 2 things ... The first lesson is to be more aggressive and take control of things once and for all... you think I would have caught on by now! The second thing I realised is once again how truly fortunate I am to have you in my life. Thank you so much ...miss you ... love you and can't wait to see you!

Michael