Loss of a Friend

On Monday, while watching the morning news as i got ready for work, a news story caught my attention. The headline read "couple killed in head on collision outside of Calgary, seven week old baby miraculously survives." Normally i don't pay much attention to these stories, the local news tends to focus heavily on death and the more negative aspects of what is going on in the world today, but thins one held a personal connection and i guess that's all you need to become interested.

Michael Melnyk and his wife were killed Friday evening on their way home from a family wedding. I worked with Mike for two summers, 2006 - 2006, at the Glenrose in between university. He was a really great guy and we got along really well. When i met him he has just returned from Costa Rica doing missionary work (he was Mormon - from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and was looking to become a heavy duty mechanic. Over the time i knew him he had gotten engaged but then his, then, fiance left him. He has obviously moved on from that relationship and found love after all.

I then moved away to South Africa after that last summer and we lost touch. Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago and i had been thinking of trying to reconnect with him, see what he was up to and see if he was still living in the city. Sadly i never acted on that thought.

Its just a terrible thing to happen to such a young family.

For the full news story and further information you can check it out here.