Mika Klein

Around August or September of 2021, I had 2 really “important” things I wanted to share with Mika. First, was an idea I had for our annual Halloween costumes for the department (which I had learned, when I was first hired in 2018 that Facilities went all out for). A new show “Monsters at Work” on Disney+ featured a rag-tag group of monsters who worked in, what else, but… Facilities! I thought, this writes itself! We can all be different monsters with a passion for fixing things. The main character reluctantly has to join the department after realizing he can no longer be a scarer as the company now functions off of children’s laughter not screams- and alas he is not funny. He joins the team in the basement begrudgingly to just have a job. The team is goofy, strange and ultimately the best group of monsters in the company and proud of the seemingly humble work they do. This captures our group too- and I thought the idea would tickle Mika if she had not thought of it first. I did not get a change to tell her. Time just passed. The second thing I wanted to tell Mika was that I was naming my daughter-in-womb Michaela. Luckily, I did get to tell her this in person and this did tickle her. We had a nice chat about pronunciation, how we were going to spell it, and the invariable nicknames to follow. I let her know we were planning on “Michael-a” in honor of my husband’s middle name, Michael; which I consider traditional. But, leave it to Mika to provide a teaching moment of “everyone has their idea or truth of traditional.” Touché. My daughter, Michaela Marie, was born 12/13/2021. She will do you proud, Mika, I promise. So far, “KK” (Kay-Kay) and “Kaya” have been her nicknames that our 2-year-old can pronounce. In honor of Mika’s famous genius stream of consciousness, here goes my own reflecting on her…calling my office to help fix the tool rails in her office…her coffee mugs with funny and of-the-moment sayings e.g. “The future if female” (assuming this was hers, could be Nafi’s but either way she would approve)… the Keurig reusable pods with inevitable coffee grounds everywhere…. Her correcting grammar and word usage via email… her pink backpack… bumping into on campus with Patty… her thousands of colored pens… which allowed for her color-coded furniture and space plans... trying to find her the “just right” guest seating for her office where the U-shape desk was just too big for the space… her ginormous monitors… looking at fabric samples… her glasses… her haircuts… her obsession with finding these flat trays at coordinating cart for 11x17 drawings… she gave my first daughter this polka-dot artist smock for feeding in lieu of a bib telling me “because food will get everywhere!”…that I deeply regret now giving to my sister-in-law thinking “I won’t use this” (grr, at least I still have my memory of it)… meow… Scooby… snort… how she created this digital grid paper on her tablet that she could take notes on with pens and have that sketch-feel but tech-advanced… Smartsheet, enough said… Seeing her having fun in the photos of every room on campus that her team documents for our shared drive… she is indispensable to our department, one-of-a-kind is an understatement. After Mika’s Celebration at Life, I did some googling to read a bit more on what was being published about her. Something that popped up was her public Pinterest account she writes that her friends dubbed “Mikapedia.” A peek in to her mind. I decided to follow her, even now, so I can look in from time to time and remind myself of the things she cherished. She reminds me so much of my mother in that she just likes so many things- a wonderful quality of being positive and open. The big and small things bring so much joy- from art to architecture, fauna to flora, jewelry to fashion, coffee to coffee, unicorns to rainbows, glitter, sunshine, travel, EARTH… her “pins” hold it all. I found it comforting that her board with the most pins was “Gifts,” items she was thinking about for others. How fitting. She gave us all so much. I carry around a saying with me often- “Leave the party before the party leaves you.” Not the most poetic, but essentially to know when it is time to go and move on. Mika, you are at the next party and we truly miss you at ours; but I know wherever you are- you will make it fabulous.