Mike Bridge, beloved human, gone.

mike.armstrong - 2015-05-07 10:03:56 UTC - Parent #

A memory surfaced last night.
Years ago Mike had lost his voice - he'd been unable to speak above a whisper for a couple of weeks. I knew that he was due to see the doctor so, when we met for someone's birthday curry at the weekend, I asked what the doctor had said. Mike looked me in the eye and whispered, with a completely straight face, "Cancer".
The only time Mike ever said anything with a straight face was when he was setting up a punchline, so I laughed in anticipation and waited for it to come; he said, "No, really".
Apparently I wasn't the first person to react that way - joking and laughing were what he did. He was caring and clever and generous but most people will remember him for his endless love of life and his brilliant sense of humour.
He was, as usual, great company that night; so good that I left with half a lingering doubt that he was pulling a stunt - but that sort of cruel practical joke wasn't his style. Throughout the years that followed he was upbeat and positive while Geoffrey refused to bugger off. It says a lot about the guy that even at Bungay last year he really wanted us to teach him to pick a lock...he was still playing and learning and laughing despite all that had happened and all that was likely to happen.
Bye Mike.

Little Paul - 2015-05-07 21:36:23 UTC - Parent #

I'll be honest, I'm finding this post hard to write.

Nothing I can say here comes close to scratching the surface of my fondness for Mike. Yet with us living at opposite ends of the country I've only really ever been able to meet up with him at festivals, but those festivals were long and plentiful - so are packed with memories.

I first encountered the name Mike Bridge in about April 1994, when he won the photographic competition in The Catch with this photo: https://lpbk.net/misc/the_catch_v1_i7_mar-may-1994_p31.pdf (823K single page PDF scan of the page, including the text from diabolo)

That was probably 4 years before I met him in person, and several more before I connected the photographer and the photograph.

21 years since the photo was taken, it's probably still one of my favourite juggling related photos. It captures the moment so perfectly, and there's just something engaging about it. I still get a kick out of stopping and looking at it whenever I flick through that issue.

A few years back I asked Mike about the photo, and he was really proud of the image and regretted sending The Catch his only print, and he had long since misplaced the negative. Ever since that conversation my to-do list has included cleaning up a scan of it as much as I can. Now more than ever I want a copy on my wall.

With so many Bristol, BJC, WJD and Durham festivals since then, so many beers sunk, conversations and silliness shared I can't begin to single any of it out.

His enthusiasm, generosity, sense of humour (no matter how awful the jokes), love of googly eyes and frankly his entire approach to his cancer were greatly inspiring.

I mean, who else would jump fully in to Movember while they were going through a course of chemotherapy and losing all their hair?

Mike was diagnosed within a year of my mum being diagnosed with breast cancer, and I spent many hours talking to Mike and Sharon about it at Bristol that year and I'll be forever grateful for that. It really helped me sort a lot of stuff out in my head talking to friends who were going through a lot of the same stuff.

His battle with Geoffrey was a long one, and he fought it admirably.

Rest easy Mike, I'll miss you.