Mike Barrie

If Mike Barrie were to have written this obituary, it would be the most insane fever dream of an obituary ever written. There would be references on references, and only a chosen few would maybe understand half of the sources. He was a patchwork quilt of pieces of knowledge that, when sewed together, made the finest man to ever grace every room he walked into.

Everything Mike Barrie did was an adventure. Whether he was falling down a mountain out West holding on to his pickaxe hoping for the best, or picking up his dry cleaning, there was not a single mundane moment in his life. Every person was a chance to connect and every place a chance to explore.

No one ever felt alone in Mike Barrie’s presence. In his true larger-than-life fashion, he embodied the spirit of the Ghost of Christmas Present in Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’; “Come in, -- come in! and know me better, man! Look upon me! You have never seen the like of me before!”

The invitation to know him was immediate, but what followed was a listener who made you feel heard. Regardless of who you were, the amount of time you had with him, Mike Barrie was not just listening to you — he was really, truly hearing you.

To know Mike Barrie was to know Valerie and Terrence Barrie. He was a perfect blend of his dad’s curiosity and intellect and his mom’s caring nature and strength. His sister Jenny was the other half of his soul. There are no lengths he wouldn’t have gone to if it meant caring for his brothers Bill and Dave, Jenny and his parents. He loved them completely.

Mike Barrie’s life’s work was the thought and care he put into every role he walked into. The author of this obituary is biased, but the greatest role he ever took on was that of Papa. There are no four people on this earth that were as loved as Miranda, Maddie, Matthew and Beth. Obituaries are for the living, and if you’re reading this I want you to know that to be his family was the privilege of our lifetimes. There is no greater honor, and we all carry him with us in every fibre of our beings.

I want so desperately to communicate all of things that made up Mike Barrie but my heart, as I’m sure yours is, is shattered. The light has gone out of our lives and Mike Barrie was usually the man for the job when it came to fixing problems like broken lights. In trying to make sense of this unimaginable loss I returned to one of his favorite books; “Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.”

May we all exist in a universe beyond logic where I know my dad now resides. I hope you all continue to be curious and ask why, to reach out to the person in the room who looks a little nervous to be there and might need a friend, to marvel at the universe and then to marvel at sand, to dance with every ounce of your soul, to grasp the magnitude of the opportunity that living and loving presents.

Mike Barrie lives on in you. Please rise to the occasion.

Love,

Miranda Barrie and the Barrie Family — Beth, Maddie and Matthew