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Remembering Mike O - three years later

johnnyc

johnnyc

NAXJA Forum User
NAXJA Member
Location
La Habra, CA
Wow, it's been three years since our friend Mike passed away.

A lot of the SoCal members didn't know Mike. He was a gentle giant who was confined to a wheelchair after an accident many years ago. He always said that he was 6'5...when lying down. Yet he built his Jeep entirely on his own. He had a pulley system in his garage that would lift him up and move him around to work on his Jeep.

Mike and his buddy Dave died up in Kern County while on a T-hunt, when Mike's Jeep went off a dirt road down a steep hill.

http://www.homingin.com/davemike.html

He was such a nice guy and a true inspiration. I still think of him often. I'm sure that he and Lion are watching over us.

mikeo.jpg


IMG_9539.jpg
 
Thanks for the reminder Johnny, thought of him on the way home from Mammoth as we passed the turn off to Lake Isabella.

Here's some pics of him working on his Cherokee

http://www.thunter.org/equipment/mike/sne.htm

There's a lot more pics of him on the t-hunter site
 
Damn. I miss that guy.

He used to randomly drop in on me when I was wrenching. It didn't occur to me until several visits in that I never told him where I lived, he tracked me down on his own just to say hi.
 
I can't believe it has been 3 years. Wow.

RIP Mike. :wave:
 
Right after Mike died, I had a dream...

I was in a neighborhood with perfect little houses with perfect lawns. I was going into a relative's house, when I see Mike across the street. He's sitting on his lawn doing some gardening.

I tell my relative that I'll be right in and that I have to say hello to somebody. I walk across the street and Mike stands up to shake my hand. He towered over me. At that point, I woke up.

Thinking about it, I realized that I was in heaven. I was going into my cousin's house, who passed away about 10 years ago.

I guess there are no wheelchairs in heaven.

It was such a vivid dream. I think about it all the time. And it's still as clear as day. Weird, I know.
 
I also can't believe it's been that long. He was a pretty heavy poster on SoCalXJ many moons ago. Hence the picture of him in a SoCalXJ.com beanie. I remember Ryan gave him that at the M&G. I only got meet him once in person the M&G in Vista, but that was enough to feel like I knew him for a long time. I also never saw so many Jeeps and cars in a cemetery before.

:cheers: to Mike O :cheers:
 
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