Martin Sikes
posted by LingMartin Sikes passed away on Dec. 24, 2007. That was a quite shock news for Chris and I. It was specially hard for Chris. He lost a dear friend and a special person who had shaped his view and believes.
Martin was one of Chris’ roommates for 5 years back when studying in the UBC Electrical Engineering. At the time, 7 engineering students were sharing a big house in an affluent neighborhood in Vancouver west. Martin was the house manager and also the group leader. He turned the house into a place where everyone enjoyed their stay and people loved to hanging out.
I never met Martin in person, but from stories I heard, I felt like I knew him. After back from the celebration of life memorial (hosted in the Kay Meek Centre of West Vancouver on January 6, 2008), I felt I knew him as a dear friend. The stories shared by the people at the memorial transformed my view of life and death, inspired me to take on a new perspective and attitude to live a meaningful life in this world.
I have been telling Martin’s stories to the people in my office lately, the stories such as how he invented a automatic beer vending system for the UBC Electrical Engineer student Club, how he created master keys to various offices on the UBC campus, his fascination with trains and underground steam tunnels, his brilliance of managing the rented house with 7 engineering students and his media stunt with the WV Bug in Stanley park lost lagoon(Chris will share more of these stories in ourlog soon). Among those stories, 3 things amazed me the most:
1. He planted a memorial tree before his departure from this world
2. He organized retirement party before his death
3. He died on Dec. 24, 2007
Are these coincidence, or he already knew his departure from this world? I like to think that he went on a different mission, exploring a different world on a new journey.
Martin, you are deeply missed by all your friends and all lives you touched !
– Edited on Jan. 18, 2008
January 13th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I have good memories of Martin too although I only met him on a couple of occasions. Whenever Chis and his roomates moved to a new place they held an open house for parents to come and see the new place. Martin’s grandfather reminded us of a character in a tv show called Fawlty Towers so we just simply called him the major. He was also the one who helped move Chris out of the house in time to escape major retribution from Bob and me (you’ll have to ask Chris about that, Ling). All in all I remember him as having a good soul. Chris, was he the one that rigged up all the different door bell chimes and the phone system so you knew who it was for? He’s in my prayers.
January 28th, 2008 at 1:05 am
We’ve set up a memorial page for Martin at penmachine.com/martinsikes, with photos and copies of the eulogy speeches, as well as links and so on.
Thanks for coming to the memorial too.
February 3rd, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Pictures of The Martin Sikes Memorial Tree:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vidaver/sets/72157603792825095
February 20th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Very Nice! Thanks!
February 27th, 2008 at 1:29 am
That was him (and me) that made the doorbell. I still have all the WAV file we recorded for it — including Martin saying “Bing, bong.”