It is hard to come to terms with the idea that I will never speak to Michael again. I met him in 2002 at the ALLC/ACH conference in Tuebingen where he taught me XSLT. And despite my broken English, he took good care of me and managed to infuse some of his knowledge and wisdom into me. Since then, Michael has been one of my points of reference in the DH community: I’ve passed many of my articles and papers via him, and his work constitutes the theoretical backbone of my book of 2015. As many before me have said, he was generous, humble and genuinely interested in people and new ideas. He taught me that you are never too learned and knowledgeable to learn something new, and never too important to listen to a newcomer. He was a good, good person and a role model for me.