Michael James Collis, age 65, of Dula Road, the Grassy Creek community, died on Saturday, October 29, of a heart attack. Mike was preceded in death by his father, Everett James Collis, and his mother, Lillian Wilson Collis.
Mike is survived by his sister, Margaret Collis Greene and her husband Larry Joe Greene; by nieces, Alison Collis Greene and Miranda Lacey Callis; and by their spouses and children, Jason Morgan Ward and Amos and Theo Ward; and Tom Callis and Everley and Roan Callis.
Mike graduated from Harris High School in 1976. After two years at Western Carolina University, Mike lost his father to leukemia and returned home to care for his grieving mother. He lived with her and cared for her for the remainder of her life. Mike worked at Henredon from the time he returned home until it closed in 2004, and then completed LPN certification at Mayland Community College. He spent the past twenty years caring for aging and dying adults, first at the Brian Center, and then as a home health nurse and for Hospice of the Blue Ridge, where he worked from 2015 until his death. Mike spent his entire adult life as a caregiver, and he loved his patients as he loved his own family. He shared his holidays with them, found profound meaning in their lives and stories and the mundane aspects of care, and then adopted and loved their left-behind cats.
This profound ability to love characterized Mike’s life. He loved his sister, Margaret and his brother-in-law Larry, and spent nearly every Friday evening with them. He never had children, but he defined the genre of uncle for his nieces, Alison and Miranda; his great-nieces and nephews, Amos and Theo, Roan and Everley; and for his nephews-in-spirit, Austin Smith and Luke Hensley. Mike loved good books and the woods, the Dallas Cowboys and blue Ford pickup trucks. He loved his family, defined in the broadest terms. He refused attention, was humble to a fault, and was infuriatingly stubborn. Perhaps he was most stubborn in his love for his family, both born and built, a love that was unconditional and unfettered and unshaken by the stinginess of this world.
A memorial service will be held for Mike at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 4, in the Chapel of Webb Funeral Home in Spruce Pine, with a visitation hour at 1:00 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Hospice and Palliative Care of the Blue Ridge and Mitchell County Animal Rescue.
Words of comfort may be e-mailed to the family by going to our website; www.webbfh.com, selecting Mike Collis’ name and then you may sign his guestbook.
Webb Funeral Home has been entrusted with the arrangements for Mr. Collis and is honored to be serving the Collis family.
Mike’s obituary has also been posted on Facebook for viewing
