Its been a while since I've thought of Michael Greene, but not too long... I searched his name and found this site.
Me and Greene were good friends at camp. We were on 13 day and 15 day together. I just wanted to say that he was a great person and never, never mean spirited. And that is an extremely rare quality that I don't believe I've ever seen in someone that I've gotten to know as well as him. In that sense I have been humbled and try to emulate him.
Aside from the many canoe trip memories, one specific memory that comes to mind is; one day we had nothing to do (possibly visitor's day before the parents showed up) and broke into the old photography darkroom. This is a small very small cabin/shack near the woodshop. At this time (we were about 14 or 15 years old so 2003-4) the darkroom had not been used in years. When we were foresters (young campers) Libby Saddick would take us there sometimes to develop the pictures she had taken with us. Anyway, upon entering the darkroom, we saw pictures - Tamakwa style, black and white - the earliest from around five years beforehand. Seeing pictures of older campers and councilors we hadn't seen in a while, and being in a place that reminded us of our past was an interesting feeling. I guess seeing the pictures on this site has brought that specific memory to the front of my consciousness.
When Greene died, I was not initially at camp that summer... As high school in Ontario usually goes until the end of June, I was still at school when I heard about Greene going to hospital. I was told by my parents that he was in trouble, but still alive and sent to Sunnybrook Hospital. My high school was nearby, so after school I walked over to the hospital to see if I could see Greene and wish him well. It had been over two years since I had last seen him in our senior boy summer. I went up to the reception desk and was turned away because I was not immediate family. It was at this point that I realized that Greene probably was lost. I was moved by losing a friend like Greene even though I hadn't seen him in over two years. I went to the funeral in Detroit, seeing a few camp friends that I also hadn't seen in over two years, and haven't seen since. I then decided to go back to camp as a councilor for the second month of that summer. I would never have gone back to camp without Greene dying, and the loss of very few others would have affected my life in such a way (going back to camp and otherwise).
Before going up to camp in that August of 2007, but after the funeral in Detroit, Greene actually VISITED me in a dream. The dream (a little wonky but that's how dreams go) goes as follows:
I was walking around and Greene walked up to me, and I was shocked because I knew him to be dead. I said something like 'hey I thought you were dead'. He looked at me like I was crazy and assured me that I was mistaken and that he had been alive all along and nothing was wrong. Then we hung out for a while. Then I woke up, missing a friend.
Now its 2014, so its been over 10 years since I saw Greene. I miss him, but keep his memory with me. Greene has taught me to be kind and nonjudgmental. I hope I don't let him down. |
