Here it is July 20th 2009, and I'm thinking of you Johnny. 10 years ago our lives changed forever. Of course, not a day goes by without thoughts of you. We try and just dwell on the good memories, but unfortunately those bad days come back to memory because of the horrible disease you lived with every day of your life. Cystic Fibrosis, a disease we continue to fight for a cure of. We do celebrate the fact that you are in Heaven, a place of no more pain, no sorrow and picture you playing the drums and singing in that heavenly choir. We found a few pictures, not of real good quality, and the scanner isn't working, but wanted to add a few new ones. Thanks Oscar for finding this one. Johnny loved to play his drums as often as possible, so playing at camp was a blast for him. I hope you will share some memories of Johnny with us. It is our way of dealing with our grief . We love you Johnny, Mom and Dad.
Johnny playing his drums at church camp, approximately 1997 or 1998. The picture below is of Johnny and one of his greatest mentors,
his Band Director, Paul Locke. This is at band camp in I believe 1993.
The picture above is at one of our band functions, either a band pool party or band practice night.
This collage of pictures was put together by a very talented friend and co-band member, Eric Beckett after Johnny died.
Somemore favorite pictures
Our first Bowl for Breath - 1982 or 1983
6 comments:
You guys are in my thoughts and prayers all of the time, but especially tomorrow. Johnny will always be missed.
I love you and John and will be thinking of you. I feel very blessed to have known and loved Johnny. Everytime we were going out of town for a weekend my kids would BEG me to see if Johnny could stay with them. He was so good to my kids. He is deeply missed.
Love, Cheryl
I love you both VERY much!!! I also feel so blessed to have known Johnny. I miss him so much. :(
It's like a love/hate thing... I love that you're in Heaven, Johnny, but hate that you're not here. I love telling Annie about you--how funny you are, how much I used to get a kick out of watching you and Trisha fight--but hate that she can't know you herself. But, then I love that someday soon, we'll all be together again--with each other and the Savior who died for all of us. That, I love.
I sit here tonight and wonder what might have been. What would Johnny be doing now - if he was still with us? Where would he live? Where would the roads of this life have taken him?
Would he still like Pepsi? Probably. Would he still show up at the front door 'cause he genuinely liked hanging out with you? Of course - well maybe not as frequently as he did when we lived just around the corner – it’s a little further to 'sconsin than around the clock! Would he still make me laugh - just at the right time? Certainly.
But we don’t live in a world of "what could have been." Instead we live in a world where God remains in control and decided in his infinite wisdom, that by allowing Johnny to get to heaven before the rest of us - that the part of Johnny's life that was spent with us, has had more of an impact on our planet than the lives of most of us who have already passed the half-century mark.
I am sad because of our loss - but I am much more jealous - that Johnny has already met his Savior and welcomed home more and more of those who we love and have had to let go.
Heaven's sounding sweeter - all the time - seems like lately, it's always on my mind. And not a small part of why I think about heaven so much is because it holds a very special nephew whom I miss dearly. See you soon Johnny!
Uncle Scott
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