My Faithful Friend

Mike Harris

About a month ago, I received some dreadful news. My fitness mentor and friend had passed away unexpectedly. We were preparing to head to Canada for Kevin’s sister’s wedding when we received the news. It hit me like a ton of bricks.

It is a peculiar sensation, losing one’s mentor. It leaves a void, an appreciable emptiness where there was always an approachable and infallible resource just a phone call or e-mail away. I feel a little more alone today, a little less supported, as if an invisible safety net has been pulled out from under me.

Kevin and Mike

BUT I am better off too. You see Mike Harris gave me a lot of good advice over the years. Mike believed in me when I absolutely had no faith in myself, motivated me when I had no strength to motivate myself, and he accepted nothing less than 100% effort. He never bothered with any excuses I threw out there. He never let me settle. He made me give all I had and more.

He was uncompromising in all aspects of his life - often to extremes - but always acted only from his own core, from that internal voice which he trusted deeply…. His faith.

Tracy, E and Mike

Mike will be missed by me, but also by many in the Body for Life and fitness world. I will forever remember Mike for standing out in the crowd and touching so many of us. He made us believe in ourselves. He taught us to be excellent servants of God and he demanded nothing less than perfection from all of us.

He will be greatly missed but never, ever forgotten.

Mike, Elizabeth and Kevin
Mike doing what he did best, listening to people and giving advice