Brock student dies at party

Mike Holmes, a theatre student at Brock University and a friend to many, passed away early Saturday morning due to a tragic accident that took place at a cast party celebrating the final performance of Troy, a play in which he performed Friday evening.

According to Francine McCarthy, an associate professor of earth sciences and of great books/liberal studies at Brock, and a close family friend, Holmes' death was partly caused by alcohol and partly caused by the malfunction of an accessory worn by Holmes to help with a craniofacial birth defect called Treacher Collins Syndrome (TCS) which is characterized by a range of facial anomalies which can cause problems with hearing, breathing and eating. The accessory is a tracheostomy (trach), which is a hollow tube that is inserted in the neck into the airway to help with breathing.

Holmes had been having difficulty breathing during the party, and went into the bathroom, where he collapsed.

"Other people at the party noticed that he had not come out of the bathroom," said McCarthy.

"They tried to resuscitate him, but it is very difficult, even for an expert, to do CPR with someone who has a trach ... but they called 911 and by the time the paramedics got there ... there was nothing more they could do. It's just a freak accident."

On Monday morning in the theatre department, a mournful group of students constantly referred to Holmes as someone who was vital in "bringing people together" because he was a friend to so many people and was actively involved in campus life.

According to McCarthy, Holmes was best known for "not having to let his disability define him and taking on all sorts of challenges, even those you might think unlikely, making people comfortable with his disability and not making you feel awkward about it."

"He was involved in rowing. He was quite a competitive rower in high school," said McCarthy. "He did a lot of amateur film making and cartoon drawing and things like that. He really loved video games and just really, really enjoyed campus life. His time at Brock was the best time of his life. Especially in residence where he fit in so well and where he was accepted."

McCarthy said that Holmes lived in residence for his first three years at Brock and that this year, his fourth year, he lived off campus.

"[His birth defect] never, ever got to him," said Natalie Comeau, a fellow drama student.

"His attitude was as if nothing was different about him at all," she added.

"I was in the scene ... he was doing for [directing class]," said Curtis Thompson, the drama student and friend who found Holmes unconscious early Saturday morning. "He made every rehearsal fun. Sometimes you wake up and you're like 'I don't want to go to rehearsal,' but knowing that Mike was there was a plus, because you knew it was going to be fun and you were going to get lots accomplished."

"I've never seen a person almost always happy," he said. "He got stressed, that was the worst ... never mad, angry, depressed, even when life got him down ... he would never let anyone tell him no."

Many Brock students remember Holmes because of his active social life both on and off campus and his excellent dancing skills.

"He went all out," said Thompson. "We went to Montral for reading week, and we were at this bar ... and the dance floor was entirely empty, and he danced by himself for, like, an hour trying to get these girls' attention ... I couldn't do that. He was an amazing dancer."

Holmes' death was shocking to family, friends and fellow students at Brock.

"He's got a brother and sister slightly younger than him," said McCarthy. "I think his brother is a year and a half [younger] and his sister is three years younger ... They're both just out of high school and they're competitive rowers as well. They'll both probably be going to the Olympics actually ... His mother is at her mother's house ... they plan to come down for any memorial type service ... They are all shocked and saddened, but his mother's first response to the news of the tragedy ... was her concern towards his brother and sister and how they would deal with it and then after [her concern was for] his friends at Brock because they really were a family."

"It was probably the greatest night of his life too when you think about it," said McCarthy. "He always wanted to have a speaking part [in a play]."