I knew Mike. We had known each other for most of our time on the job. I retired five weeks before Mike got killed. Prior to my retirement, I had a conversation with Mike at Sully. We were both excited about retiring. He was jealous that I was retiring first. We joked about it and then shook hands. The last thing I said to him was “ we finally made it.”

Sixteen years later, I am still haunted by that conversation.