OK, a quandary:

Hide a few snippets of his humanity and go for chuckles with the bodacious high jinks that he concocted? Or trumpet how he embraced every day and each person who needed his help and don’t belabor the tales of his Forrest Gump-like persona (hysterical though it may be)?

Difficult choice, which is the glory of Michael J. Hoey and the incredible life he led. That it ended in March of 2020 at the age of 64 is still unfathomable to a long line of people who considered this guy from Jamaica Plain to be larger-than-life.

The photo used on the program the day of the celebration of his life captured Michael Hoey in that unforgettable '99 Ryder Cup moment . . .

So, why pick? Tell Hoey’s story from all sides because while no one can be all things to all people, good gracious Michael J. Hoey came close.

If you start with the questions, “Why write now about a man who died a year-and-a-half-ago? And where’s the golf tie-in?” the answer is: “Ryder Cup.”

Hey, it was held a few days ago and there are many people who at the mention of the Ryder Cup will smile warmly and think of Hoey’s crowning achievement at The Country Club in 1999.

Think Justin Leonard and the improbable 45-foot putt that all but clinched an historic American comeback. Emotions overflowed at that 17th hole and while it is the on-green celebration that is forever talked about, frozen on film is Leonard’s first celebratory hug, from a gentleman in a red golf shirt and Red Sox hat.

Leonard met him just off the green and never resisted the high-five and bear hug. He first noted what he believed to be proper credentials, even down to the badge that was labeled “Clergy.”

Leonard thought to himself. “I had a man of the cloth by my side.”

Not quite, as Leonard learned a year later. The man off the 17th green was Michael J. Hoey of Jamaica Plain and all his tickets were fake, most especially the clergy. At the time he was 43 and already well-known for the uncanny ability to “be there” – on the Fenway field after Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, in the Lakers’ locker room after they won the 1985 NBA Finals in Boston Garden, inside the ropes at the 18th hole of Curtis Strange’s 1988 U.S. Open playoff win at TCC.

No, he wasn’t a “man of the cloth.” But keep your angst in check. Neither was Michael J. Hoey “an imposter.” Fact is, his ability to "be there" extended into the real world, and we should all be loved the way he was.

“Michael was an inspiration to so many people in recovery. He showed people that you can still live it up and have a good time in sobriety,” said Ken Casey, front man for the Dropkick Murphys.

“I love that someone is acknowledging his adventures.”

From her home in the Los Angeles area, Carmen Lezeth Suarez confirmed that she had heard about Hoey’s “adventures.” But she was calling to explain the side of Michael that she and many others knew.

“He saved my life, and he matters.”

An actress and writer who wrote a book, “Canela,” about her childhood in Jamaica Plain in the 1970s and ‘80s, Suarez was 13 and navigating a world that had cracks into which she could fall. She had never known her father. Her mother had died. She had taken to carrying a knife. Trouble lurked, so Suarez’s seventh-grade teacher had an idea:

She knew a young man who was maybe 25 and in the final months of paying off a debt to society. Having embraced AA and its principles, the man would talk to this young girl.

. . . but plenty will remember how he got greenside at the '88 U.S. Open by dressing as a photographer.

Michael J. Hoey was escorted into the room and Suarez, expecting a man of color to bring on the “Scared Straight” routine, just stared. “He had a full head of blonde hair and ridiculous blue eyes that you could see into and feel like you were safe,” she said.

The fact that he was willing to help “a “Black Latino homeless kid find another avenue” blew her away. “He’s in here and showing me that life isn’t bottomless? Michael gave me hope when I had become hopeless.”

Michael Hoey from his mid-20s embodied AA. He joined the bricklayers’ union and later worked for Eversource, but honestly his job was sticking to the foundation of “the program.” He took young Carmen to AA meetings so she could see the depths to which people fell, he went with family members and fellow workers, people from the local golf circle, and simply found it easy to be available whenever anyone needed him, for whatever reason.

“In my lowest days you were there without question,” posted Donnie Wahlberg on a blog after Hoey’s death. They were longtime friends and Wahlberg also vowed on the blog that “your story will be told, as promised.”

“It’s people helping people, and Michael was far-reaching,” said John, one of Michael’s younger brothers.

Which isn’t to say that Hoey had given up that insatiable thirst for adventure. Heck, he might be the only one who has been up close and celebrating with both sides in this biennial event. Brookline ’99, of course, but then there was the K Club outside of Dublin in 2006 when Hoey and two accomplices from Boston made their way onto the clubhouse balcony to celebrate Europe’s resounding win.

Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke lofting a pint of Guinness, captain Ian Woosnam, Lee Westwood, Luke Donald, and Paul Casey are forever pictured in their joy – and right there with them, his right fist clenched, is an Irishman via Jamaica Plain, Michael J. Hoey, and one of his friends, Paul Mitchell from West Roxbury.

Mind you, nothing illicit was involved, just a “stone-cold sober guy who loved to plan these things for fun,” said John Hoey. “He loved the challenge, I think. He would say, ‘If you act like you belong, you’re OK.’ ”

Suarez was never party to any of these high jinks; her friendship with Hoey was built around the mentorship, the advice, and the times he would just listen. But she was often in awe of the presence he projected and isn’t surprised to hear of these stories.

It is that Marcus Aurelius quote from centuries ago – “Perfection of character is this: To live each day as if it were your last . . . ” – that Suarez suggests sums up her friend.

“He really did live his life that way. The rest of us would be afraid to do that, thinking ‘we can’t dare go there.’ Michael probably thought, ‘Why can’t I go there?’ ”

Having re-connected via Facebook, Hoey a few years ago was headed to LA to meet up with Wahlberg and so Suarez saw him for the first time in maybe 15 years.

Like she always had been, Suarez was comforted by Hoey’s presence. “He could take the energy out of the room and give it to everyone else. There was nothing malicious about him; he was a really, beautiful person. There are so few authentic people in this world and Michael dripped authenticity.”