In Memory

Michael White

Michael White



 
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01/10/14 01:26 PM #1    

Edward Torchy Smith

I could write a JD Salinger type of book about Michael White. In fact, I am sure it would be better and more intersting...as I sit here and pat myself on the back. But that book will be much longer and I will start writing it on another day.  Michael and I became fast friends from the very start of first grade at Lomond Elementary. We remained good buddies until the day he tragically died. All the wild stories I have about our adventures I will have to spare you due to the time limits. Michael had a good heart. He crossed all lines when making friends and having relationships. He was a faithful friend to many and loved by many. He lived for the day. In fact in lived for the moment. The good times caught up with him at the end but he really “Did It His Way”.

 

I am reluctant to tell the following story here but for some reason I will. It is always in the back of my mind when I start thinking about Micheal’s life. It also makes good copy. It may inspire others to add their two cents about one of their deceased friends. Maybe their posts will be more appropriate and less personal but knowing Michael he will not mind.

 

The love of Micheal’s life other than his daughter was a girl named Diane McCormick. She was a year older and a 1964 Shaker Graduate. She gave up a lot to date him when she was only a Junior at Shaker. It was not cool for a popular girl in a gentile crowd to have a lasting relationship with a younger Jewish boy from the wrong side of the Shaker Rapid. Diane was captured with Michael' s persistence and mesmerizing personality. Diane became our gun mall and drove Micheal’s friends around town before we had our driver's licenses. She became close friends with all of us. The two of them had a stormy love affair going on for a long. They saw each other off and on all the way until Diane's death which was when she was still in her mid twenties. Diane married her boss at a radio station in Cleveland who was Bob Neal, a sports announcer and a well known personality. He was about 30 some years her senior. They lived at the penthouse in a high rise on the Gold Coast in Lakewood. One Sunday afternoon Diane was hanging plants on her large balcony while standing on a rocking chair. She slipped and fell all the way down and landed on the roof of the first floor restaurant. Bob Neal was on the phone at the same time with Diane's mother while watching this clandestine activity happening in front of him . The death was officially ruled accidental. Michael and others, including myself, never really believed the story because of other circumstances better left untold. All the parties are deceased but Michael and I talked many times about Diane.

 

How different both their lives would have been if they stayed together. But you can say that about all of us with all the path's we choose not to take. Michael had a huge sense of humor and Michael stories go on. They are often repeated when some of his old buddies get together.

 

 

 

 

 


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