Linda Repka
As everyone knows, when it came to skiing, Mike was fearless! I’ve only been skiing twice in my lifetime and both times was with Mike and Linda. I’ll never forget that first time when Mike told me the bunny hills would be best for me to try first. Before he showed me where the bunny hills were, he taught me to “snowplow,” which for those reading this that don’t know, in skiing, a bunny hill is a gentler sloping hill for beginners and snowplowing is what you do to control your speed; you form a “V” or wedge shape with the skis. Then Mike proceeded to take me on a ski lift, which he said would take me to the bunny hills. What I didn’t know was that Mike was about to basically throw me in the deep end so I could learn to swim! Lol! (I can laugh now but was I scared then!!)
Mike took me to a much higher sloping hill and the only way down was, yep, you guessed it…down! After cursing him out, I proceeded to snowplow, moving side to side, down the hill until I reached the bottom. But something happened as I went flying down that hill, as I was looking side to side, searching for a means of escape, somewhere along the way down, I started enjoying the fact that I could do it! I sat myself down once, mind you I didn’t fall, I purposely sat myself down because the speed was scaring me! But by the time I reached the bottom and cursed Mike out, lol!!, I also hugged him because I did it!
While I stuck to the bunny slopes after that, and my life didn’t move me in the direction of taking up skiing as a hobby, which I regret, I never forgot the joy Mike showed me that day by making me do something I would never have tried on my own, without a literal push to move me in that direction. I have always admired that about Mike, when he was doing what he loved to do, he put his whole self into it and his smile and his joy was contagious and drew people in! Over the years, even though our lives took us different places, the light that Mike sparked in my life never dimmed and it never will. I have been and always will be grateful that our paths intersected for quite a few years and now I have the warmth of my memories of Mike to keep that light burning in my soul for him. Thank you my friend, you will be missed and always remembered with love.
Linda Repka