Mikey.

My uncle Mikey. There are not enough people in the world like him. No matter how bad he's feeling, and I mean BAD, it's never about him, he's always concerned about you, and always has a smile on his face. When I was little (4 or 5) my family use to get together at my grandmothers house for New Years, and every year I was left home with a sitter (Mikeys daughter JoAnne). Every year he would come over and pick me up so I was eye to eye with him and say, "Do you want to go to the party with me and show those people how to have fun?" And every year I was there, no matter what my parents said or other relatives said. Uncle Mikey said I could was a common phrase.

He would dress up every xmas as Santa Claus and come over to my house. Just so me and my brother could believe in Santa for a little bit longer than other kids, the last few years he dressed up like Santa for my daughter, and bought her toys and treated her like she was his own grandchild. I'm a better person for knowing my Uncle Mikey.

And now he's gone.

Michael Fabian Haley passed away August 1, 2004 at 4:05pm. He died in his sleep, with his wife and his daughter (my cousin JoAnne) at his side. I loved my Uncle Mikey so much that this is almost too hard to write about. But all I keep thinking about is everything I learned from him, and how I want to be someones aunt someday... and do the things for them that he did for me.

And with that said I said my goodbyes in the graveyard today, and here I say goodbye with this little bit from "A Tout Le Monde" by Megadeth.

A tout le monde
A tout mes amis
Je vous aime
Je dois partir
These are the last words
I'll ever speak
And they'll set me free.