A friend of mine

I wanted to remember a friend of mine today on his birthday. He's been gone now for close to three years but I still feel like he's around sometimes. He was so full of spirit and hilarity I sometimes wonder if it was just a dream of his passing.
My friend Mike Meros. I met Mike 28 years ago when I was 15. I was a giggly fan of the Beach Boys and he was their keyboard player. I had met some girls at a Beach Boys concert in Clarkston MI in 1982 who travelled around to see the band. I had dreamed for 3 years up to that point of meeting that band. I loved the Beach Boys! I asked constant questions on how everyone was in real life and what kinds of things they did when they met up with them all the time. I think they must have taken pity on me because they asked if I wanted to go the next time they came to town. YES! That was all I could think of. That August the Beach Boys came to Michigan to play the State Fair. The girls told me if I could get dropped off at one of the local girls homes I could ride with them. I BEGGED my mom to take me over there and reluctantly she did and plopped a little bit of money in my hand and told me not to ask for any more. She was a single mom after all and money was tight. I had enough to cover my part of the hotel and maybe get a meal. Well without going into too much detail about all that, more later..lol..that night after the concert arriving back at the hotel I met Mike Meros. The band was in our hotel and although I was searching out Carl Wilson left and right we ran into Mike several times that night. I only knew two of the backup band members at that time. Ed Carter - and my future boyfriend Bobby Figueroa. Bobby wasn't there that summer because he injured his back so I was clueless on who anyone else was. Meros was a treat that first trip because he was so nice and not a bit stand offish. My friend Kathy and I must have run into him at least 5 times that night. The next day he remembered me as the band all were checking out and I made my way around them all with my autograph book.
The next time I saw him was nearly a year later and he was just as kind and funny. We talked little bits but nothing to the extreme. That whole year after I met him we would occasionally run into each other during the 13 times we saw the band all over the mid west. By the end of that summer tour Mike and I were Pac - Man buddies. We would try to outscore each other and it was always a big competition. The year after that we saw the band 12 times and we were starting to chat a bit more. One of the girls I traveled with had a crush on him to the extreme that it sometimes made him uncomfortable. Still he would single me out and we would grab a coke or something in the bar of the hotel. (I was still only a teenager so couldn't stay in there past 8pm!)
By the third year of me around the band we had gotten to the point of having lunches and talking about family, love interests and so on. We did many weird trips. Driving to a brewery, taking a drive to find all the Drive In Theatres, stuff like that. Mike was my first REAL friend in the band. By the end of that year he would call on the phone to see what was new or to tell me his life up to that point. When he finally had kids and got married, (yes in that order! geesh) I was really excited for him. We still remained close friends and he even invited me to his wedding which I couldn't attend because I had a new job.
Over the next 20 years we always stayed in touch even when I started to take a leave from seeing the band for a couple of years. He'd always try and coax me to come, but for two years I didn't want to. He was the one to tell me that Carl Wilson was dying of cancer and to get my butt to the show the night they were in town. I was so glad because it was the last time I saw Carl again.
When Mike got let go from the Beach Boys I was sad for him but knew it was stressing him out too with his family. He wasn't meant to stay home however I saw. He was happier on the road being a touring musician. When Bobby and I started to date, I was curious to see if he'd stay my friend, and he did. In fact he and Bobby got to be closer when we did because they got to talk again without all the drama of what was going on in the band. The last time I saw Mike was in May of 2006. I had him come out to my Beach Boys convention and he had the time of his life. He and Bobby talked for hours and I was happy. Mike died of a Heart Attack a year later and I was so shocked because he was so healthy and spirited. I can still hear his laugh and his silly sayings. He will be so missed!