What Janet Rigaux - O'Shea Said at Farewell

My Memories of Uncle Mike

by Janet Rigaux-O’Shea - Read by Chris Rigaux

Goodbye Uncle Mike. Even though you lived to be 72 and at 15 I would have told you that’s really old, I now know that it is actually young for a Bird. You died suddenly and untimely on July 18th and we will all miss you.

My memory of Mike that I’d like to share is his unique gift to live Shakespeare’s words “Be true to thine self.” When Mike and his family moved to Shoals and built their own house and started a farm in the 70’s I happened to be reading Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Pond. This work deeply affected my life and I was so inspired by Thoreau’s call to live simply and in tune with nature. I was so thrilled that my uncle and his family were doing exactly what Thoreau called upon us to do. I couldn’t believe someone in my family was embodying my hero’s philosophy. I thought “Mike is cool! And I want to be like him!!!”

Now I have to admit as a much older person I realize that living simply and growing one’s own food isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and that for those involved in Mike’s experiment the experience may have been a little less sexy and a lot more difficult than it seemed to me as a naïve 15 year old. Nonetheless it took a lot of courage for Mike and Diane to decide to buck the system and find a more meaningful way to live and my hat is off to them for that.

I deeply appreciate Mike’s ability to be non-judgmental and allow people to be. I know that I have not always pleased everyone in my family but I always felt love and support from Mike. We didn’t necessarily have a chance to communicate all that much as I grew older and moved out of the mid-west, however I always knew that Mike was ok with whatever I was doing no matter how whacky. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for that Mike.

Even in death Mike you have managed to do it your own way. A freak wind in a storm and downed trees, who dies like that? None of us will ever forget how you died. But more importantly we won’t forget how you have lived. In the words of Thoreau: “I don’t want to reach the end of my life and realize I have not lived. “ No one will ever accuse you Mike of not living life to the fullest. How fitting that your last day was spent doing what you love—golfing.

I’m not sure that there is an afterlife but if there is one then Grandma & Granddad Bird will be there to welcome you. How neat to see them again. Please prepare a place for the rest of us. However know that we will not be coming anytime soon. Good bye Mike and may you rest in peace.

Love, your niece Janet