Smile

I'm home after a busy night on call at the hospital. I feel like I can go to sleep at a moments notice. At this moment, I get a sliver of perspective into how hard it must have been for Mike to meet the demands at work and home life while dealing with the hard physical toll his illness put on him. He managed generalized fatigue from chemotherapy, radiation and anti-seizure medication while working long hours at work, taking on research projects and studying for exams. Meanwhile he was balancing his home life as a husband and father. Unimaginably, day in and day out, he battled through his symptoms to continue the dream life that he loved so much.

Despite all of his challenges Mike always stayed positive. Pretty much every time I think of Mike I picture him smiling his classic Mike smile. A big wide smile that made his cheek tight and you knew he couldn't smile any farther.

I can imagine 2 distinct 'Mike smiles'. Like most of us, when something made him happy he would flash a huge grin from ear to ear. But sometimes, he had a smile that started as almost a smirk and then gradually migrated across his face until it finally grew into the same big smile. This is usually the smile I think about. It happened when Mike got intrigued, interested and then excited about something we were talking about, whether that was about sports, medicine or life in general. We all had a genuine connection with Mike because he was engaging, enthusiastic, interesting and thoughtful in the conversations he had with us. Mike's smile was a genuine expression of his passion and it always made me feel good (and smile myself) because it made me very connected to him.