Photographed on Water Street, 22.Feb.2010.
My meeting with Michael Partridge began with his wife, Darlene, explaining Michael's personality by telling me about how he went into a meeting with a new manager for the very first time and planted a whoopee cushion to surprise the new manager.
Michael Partridge has been called a "hearing hero". I won't try to tell his whole story, because he tells it best himself here.
The short version is that one morning, while at his cottage in Nova Scotia, he awoke unable to hear. After some struggles and testing, he was given a cochlear implant which dramatically improved his hearing.
Since then, Michael has spent a great deal of time helping other candidates for a cochlear implant both online and in person. He is an administrator of an online forum for the Hearing Loss Association of America, and he has served on a New Brunswick committee that supports and advocates for cochlear implant patients and families.
And as he walked away after I took a photo, he told me to make sure I mention the fart thing.