314 Green Ridge Road, Cartersville, Georgia 30120
Let me tell you about Mike. He should have been born 100 years
ago, on a farm in the Midwest, but he was born in Connecticut in
1960 in the city. He went to his first gas engine show around 1980
and was immediately drawn to antique machinery. He purchased a 4HP
upright Novo and it all started. Oh, how he loved restoring old
‘one lungers’ and going to shows where almost everyone
there was twice as old or older. He fit right in. He acquired a 3HP
Domestic and 6HP Associated, but his favorite was an old 1? John
Deere he got at the Tri-State Engine Show in Indiana. We went there
for our family vacations.
Now Mike cannot travel. He has developed a serious illness. He
has kidney failure, and was forced to give up his career as a
tool-maker and go on a grueling dialysis machine three times a
week. His health was gone. He did, however, continue to restore
this last engine.
Mike’s been on dialysis for almost seven years now, even
after his brother Scott lovingly donated one of his kidneys and it
failed within one week. We were all heartbroken. You only hear of
the successful transplants in the news.
Mike continues to be brave and positive. His faith keeps him
going and helps him cope and endure. His only wish, he tells me, is
that he would someday love to see his engine on the cover of
GEM, one of his favorite magazines.
