Mike we will miss you.

[JoeD]

Sometimes we get caught up in what we are doing here and lack perspective.  Loosing a close friend is natures way of bringing you back to focus and understanding what is really important in life.  Mike and I talked a lot, under the radar,  supporting each other in our respective roles at the companies we work for.  He rarely started a conversation without asking about the family as I did his.  Good guy, sincere, gifted who lived his life to its best, loved his family and his friends.  Qualities that are not in abundance in this world.  We all make a mark on life, some of us just do it with more force.

Joe
 

[Steve Rodgers]

Joe summed it up really well.Mike will really be missed.R.I.P.
Bluford Shops

[Angus Shops]

I never met Mike, but I wish I had. We had similar interests in the hobby (Canadian Pacific) and we 'talked' regularly via email about a variety of projects. He was always full of enthusiasm and ideas, and when I suggested one that he was particularly interested in, the punctuation in his emails was extraordinary (!!!!!!!!). We did have a highly symbiotic relationship; I'd send him a car and he'd make a big deal about on the Railwire. Thanks for that Mike.

As much as we know Mike as a model railroader, and some of us were lucky enough to know him personally, we should also remember that he was, more importantly, also a husband and a father. All of my sympathies go out to his family.

Geoff Gooderham

[Mark5]

Horrible news 

I'll miss him.

Mark

[draskouasshat]

God speed Mike. May you rest in piece and God rest your soul. You will be sorely missed and your family well be in my prayers.

[jmarley76]

Sad to hear, I enjoyed his posts and his modeling.

[wm3798]

A little late, but I think it's appropriate to all raise a toast to the late, great Mike "Puddington" McGrattan.


Sadly I don't have the budget for Makers Mark, Mike's particular elixir of choice, so I'll settle for a local brew, which I'm sure he would have enjoyed.
To all the late night chats about everything from passenger car seats to the mysteries of the fairer sex, to the incredibly detailed story behind each incredibly detailed model, to the scenes that included as much whimsy as they did prototype fidelity.

To the laughter he shared with us, to the encouragement he provided, and for the example he set... always reaching just beyond our grasp to make something just a little better, whether it was a weathered freight car or way to talk to your kids.

Someone posted that while he was a big man in a very literal sense, he was barely big enough to contain his heart and his magnanimous personality.

To you, my virtual friend, I raise a toast!  Salute!

[davefoxx]

Well said.  Upvote for you, Lee.

DFF

[glakedylan]

+1
sincerely
Gary

[Specter3]

Lee says it well.

This hits too close to home for me.

Damn you cancer, damn you!

I too only knew him through here but he was someone I kind of stalked as his posts were always worth the time.

[mmagliaro]

Well, I waited and waited through all of this, feeling miserable about it and grieving for Mike's son and wife, even though I
only know him from reading his posts here on this forum. 

I thought for days and days about that final thread he started that began "I can't walk", not knowing what to say.

To think that a fellow we know, even if virtually, was here in our midst, just as recently as a still-active thread on this forum. 
And just like that, he is gone.  I am sure many of us have lost friends to cancer.  I know I have.

Maybe that's why what Lee wrote (and Lee, that was touching and beautiful) was so perfect and appropriate.  Because even those
of us who didn't know Mike personally still feel a mysterious sense of terrible loss at losing him.

Well, Lee, I'm not a rich man either.  But I do keep a bottle of Maker's Mark in the cupboard just for special drinks at Christmastime, and I know what I'm going to go do now.

I wish comfort and peace for Mike's family, and for all of you, my Railwire friends, at this time of sadness.

[Dave V]

I wish I had words that could make sense of all of this...  Cancer stole a cousin of mine a few short months ago, leaving her 13-year-old daughter without a mother.  Mike's case brings that back painfully.  I wonder if--and how--you ever come to peace with the idea that your time on this earth is becoming very short.  Is every interaction with a family member or friend a goodbye?  Or do you try to live normally out of hope?  I think of my cousin's last Facebook posts and they're pretty mundane...no grand goodbye.  In the end for her it was about pain management, much like it was for Mike.

Just a few short years ago Mike was on top of the world.  He met the Prime Minister of Canada and landed his dream job working for Rapido trains.  Strange how life works.  Without entering into spiritual Verbotenland, suffice it to say I don't yet understand why good people are so often made to suffer.

I've taken to finding meaning in life as minimizing regret.  We are all given a set of opportunities (some more than others, granted).  However, it's not the number of opportunities that matters, but what you do with them.  It's also about lifting others up.  If you have a positive influence on as many people as you can, you've certainly done well in life.  I think we can all say that about Mike.  He was all about lifting others up.

I remember my parents were in their 40s when they really started to lose friends to cancer.  I'm 41.  So I guess that's that.

Rest well, Mike.  You put up one hell of a fight.  You will be missed.