Hey Brother

From reading this blog, I know that most of you will have no idea who I am, but I also know now that I am more fortunate than I thought to know Mike and to have considered him one of my best friends. To say that our lives were intertwined would be an understatement.

I first met Mike right after he moved to St. Louis, or rather Labadie, (a suburb of Washington!!) The circumstances of our meeting are almost unbelievable. Although I am sure that we would have crossed paths sooner or later, the method of our meeting ensured our friendship, and fittingly we owe it to Waylon Jennings, (I can only imagine how things would have turned out had it been Chuck Mangione!!!)

I was at the Washington Town & Country Fair with my sister and future brother-in-law and we were down in front of the stage before the start of the concert. Looking around I saw a kid in the stands, leaning against the railing in the back row of a set of bleachers wearing cowboy boots, blue jeans, a baseball cap and a t-shirt that only a Notre Dame student would wear. He immediately intrigued me, as coming from a town of 10,000 people, I thought I knew all of my fellow Notre Dame grads. Next thing I knew he was talking to my brother in law who was also wearing a t-shirt only a Notre Dame student would wear. That conversation went exactly like this:

Mike: Hey, did you go to Notre Dame?
Brother in law: Yes
Mike: When did you graduate?
Brother in law: 1991
Mike: Me too. What's your name?
Brother in law: Mike Sinnott
Mike: (a cold stare)

After the tension broke, because of course Mike thought we were messing with him, I found out that Mike was renting a house from my family, in fact the house my dad grew up in on our family farm. I also was reconnected to his sister Julie who had been in my class at ND and to his brother in law who had been my Assistant Rector in Dillon Hall and the man who wrote one of my letters of recommendation for law school. From that point on we were friends.

He introduced me to lacrosse in the back yard of that house. I quickly discovered that my future children were in jeopardy with a stick in my hand which caused me to switch to a catcher's mitt I had in my truck. Of course that only meant that that the shots came faster and harder.

I introduced him to the joys of being a volunteer firefighter.

We worked together professionally advising mutual clients in my law practice.

We spent many Saturday nights at my house watching Tivo'd Notre Dame games.

We had so much in common. He was the brother I never had.

About a year ago, my wife and I introduced him to her first cousin Amber. They had met before as both were in our wedding. Of course they had nothing in common at the time, but ten years later they did and it stuck. It was awesome. It was great to go to family holidays and have Mike there with us and to have members of his family join us. We truly went from friends to family.

I last talked to him on Thursday when he told me the news of his engagement. Saturday is surreal.

All of you who read this know what a truly great person Mike was. Although I thought I knew Mike as well as anyone, reading these entries has allowed me to see another side of him. It has allowed me to see the depth of his impact on so many people. I knew I would miss him, and now I know that countless others, strangers to me, will miss him too. Somehow that is comforting.

Love You Brother, God Bless

Buzz Eckelkamp ND 88