Significant People: Mike and Gail

I'm 18 years old. I've just moved to the U.S. from Ecuador. I'm clueless. My sister, Susan, introduces me to a friend who plays guitar. We hit it off. Mike thinks we could make money playing weekends at restaurants. He gets us booked. I just help set up and play. I learn that there's a business side to music and I'm not very good at it. Mike just gets out there and does it. He still splits the money with me 50/50. We do well, get regular gigs, and I get a taste of what it means to be a professional musician.

My car dies and Mike finds one for sale. "He's asking $500. Offer him $400 and he'll probably sell it for $450." I do. It works. The seller is Mike's brother.

Mike is going out with Gail. She has a great voice, teaches piano. Her brother is a former music teacher who now has a house painting business because the teacher's salary couldn't support a family. They all convince me that painting houses with Ross and younger brother, Jeff, is better than staying at the warehouse. Ross teaches me a skill that I rely on for the next decade whenever I need the money. Ross also teaches me what a good boss is like--over and over again.

Gail offers to teach me piano "for free, if you'll just practice." I have one lesson. I go home and practice on an old, out-of-tune, jammed-hammered instrument for 15 minutes. It sounds awful. I go to my room and wail on my guitar for half an hour before I can do another 15 minutes on the piano. I go back for a second lesson. She's moving me very quickly through the material. I try to practice on that old piano. It never sounds good. Frustrated, I tell Gail I just can't practice. I live on those two lessons for the next three decades.

I get to be the bass player in a band with Mike, Gail, Ross and Jeff. I get to go Christmas caroling as part of an eight voice ensemble that can pull off the "Hallelujah Chorus" as their closing number. I get dirty looks when I try to sing the soprano part during "King of Kings and Lord of Lords." I go back to "Forever and ever..."

Mike and Gail are getting married. I watch Mike decide to sell his convertible to get a car safe enough for his father-in-law's approval. I stay home from the bachelor party because I can't come up with a decent gift. Mike calls and asks why I'm not there. I tell him. He says: "I don't care about the gift; I want YOU here." I bring him the jacket he lent me a few months ago. He finds that hilarious.

I'm an usher in the wedding. I get measured for a tux with tails. I learn how to get a shaving accident bloodstain (mine) out of rented formalwear.

I buy out Mike's half of the sound system and sell the whole thing to buy a guitar amp. I go on to other bands. I go solo. I move to California.

Fast forward thirty years. Find Mike on Facebook and send a message. I get one back. Amazing. Same guy; same smile. Same Gail. Different continent!

Time after time, people have come into my life and done significant things just by being themselves. Mike and Gail showed me what it was like to be a friend with a heart, a brain, a backbone and a sense of humor.