The funeral was very emotional. Mike's family was very supportive of all of his hobbies and they had a rough idea he had some friends in the car community but I don't think they had any idea quite how many. After I asked if there was anything we could do to just name it, Mike's brother Mark looked me dead in the eye and said, 'I'm doing EVERYTHING I can to keep the car' and handing him a big pile of cash was a fantastic start I think. I wish I could have been there when he opened that envelope!
As I presented it to him his father and other family were around, as well as at least 10 members of the local forums. I told them that this was a gift from ALL of Mike's friends on four forums and it was the sum of *70* donating individuals/shops. I told him that for every donation there was probably 3-10 more well wishes behind it from supporting friends and family members.
It was very emotional but both feelings of happyness and sadness came and went in several waves. There was some cool pics of Mike growing up, our flowers were there and beautiful, and again the entire family was just reeling at the scope of the support we brought. I printed off a few of the letters and gave them to other family members and planned to share them with others there, but they were gone before I could even hang onto one in case I needed it for reference!
I called FastSigns in Brooklyn Center (I've been using them for decals for years) this morning at 8:45 and again at 9:03am and thanked Lee profusely for helping us get the decals ready for this weekend. He said it was no problem and I carefully asked if he had any that were done that I could snag for this morning. He said he had about 10 done. While I got dressed my wife Anna bombed up there, paid for the decals and in that span of time he knocked out another 17, so I had 27 decals to bring with! I bought one myself and sold 5 while I was there and gave about 8 to his family. I hope I don't run out this weekend! We'll get more printed if need be.
I talked to Mark and they said they needed to just keep Mike's car parked for the weekend. They are doing some traveling and he said even though he trusts us endlessly, he is worried about legality if anything were to happen. So, it won't be at BIR, but they said they were thinking they could bring it to one of our upcoming events....I recommended the All Mitsubishi Cookout that Curt puts on every year here in MN...Shawn supported this with a beautiful (and true!) story about how Mike had in fact WON a first place trophy at this event last year with his car. Talking it over with others I think it is the perfect venue for a tribute to Mike.
Thanks again for all of your donations and support, I will be mailing out decals starting Monday, I am SLAMMED at work and am now way behind getting ready for this weekend at BIR. I have a decal on my car and like many others, I will be doing plenty of WOT this weekend with Michael Lomker cheering me on!
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