His smile will make heaven brighter

I got the news at work on Monday, October 24. Mike Duffy passed away on Sunday. Mike's jovial face appeared in my mind. Mike was about my age. First time I came across Mike was around mid '80. We both worked for the same company in Houston. He was in the employee development and training department. During one of the struggles and down sizing that our company was going through during the gas bubble and "take-or-pay" obligation days, he was assigned to my gas measurement group under pipeline operation.

During those days I realized that Mike was very special. He always had a smile. He could easily build a sweet relation with anyone. I never saw him mad or sad. I always wondered how a person could have such a positive outlook on life day in and day out. Obviously, I knew his stay with my group was temporary. He had the people skill. He was meant to help people help themselves through training and self-development. During my association with him, occasionally our discussion would drift into what a person ought to do when he or she was down. He came up with the idea of "Life 101". "Not everything is bad in life", he would say. "Create a folder. Label it Life 101. File any recognition notes, thank you notes, greetings, anything positive about you in there. When you are down, you just open the file. You will be amazed to know how many people love you, appreciate you, grateful to you, and so on. So, life is not as bad as you think. Life 101 can uplift you." Ever since I followed his advice. I had created a file called Life 101. It had birthday cards, congratulatory messages, thank you notes, and so on. In one of the office moves (and we had many through mergers, buy out, sell off, etc of the company) I lost that file. But Mike would not want you to worry over such things. So, I had created another one and started stuffing it again. Even to this day I have a file folder called Life 101.

After a short tenure with my group, Mike joined Southern Gas Association (SGA) in Dallas. It was the most appropriate place for him. He took charge of technical training coordination at SGA for the gas industry. At his request, I taught gas measurement for the gas accounting course for many years as a volunteer instructor. This also allowed me to stay in contact with Mike in person. Eventually, Mike became the president of SGA's training and development.

Mike made anyone who came in contact with him happy with his smile. He was a perfect gentleman. He brightened everyone's day. "How are we doing this morning", he would say.

Now Mike is gone from us. His smile will make heaven brighter than ever.