We won't dwell on that sad part though. I really would like people to know the real John. My goodness he was a character. Everyone that knew him loved him. He made an impression on everyone. Always smiling. Always joking. Crazy. Happy go lucky. Hard worker. Wonderful stepdad to my daughter. Just a really big goof! This picture was of when we were only dating, this is what my daughter thought of him.. I wish it was a better picture of this
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He would bust out without warning things like "I don't want to grow up.. I'm a ToysRUs kid.. there's so many toys at ToyRUs that I can play with!".
Or just out of the blue do something crazy. Went bowling one time, and without warning, he picked up his ball like he was gonna roll it like anyone else. But not John.. noooooo.. that would be 'normal'. Instead, he did the windup thing then spread his legs and rolled the ball behind and between his legs down the lane. He actually knocked some pins down, too!
I mistakenly said, once, that he couldn't embarrass me. WRONG thing to say! He waited until we were in a busy Walmart, there were lots of people around, then said loudly "Baby, did you fart?". Ugh!!! You could have heard a pin drop, and could see every head in the vicinity turn towards me and look. If there was a hole that would have opened up that I could have crawled in to and died I would have been happy. I never said he couldn't embarrass me ever again.
Silly little things.. Like one day lazy Sunday, there he was taking a bath. But it couldn't be a normal bath, noooo.. not for John. He had to have bubbles, lots of them. My sister had called and I was on the phone with her. I could hear that John had the radio on in the bathroom, Killing Me Softly by the Fugees was playing and of course he was singing it his way. He had a way of singing everything 'his' way, which was usually hilarious. My sister could hear it on the phone and asked what the ruckus was, so I told her... it was John. It was too good to pass up, I had to peek.. there he sat, amid bubbles, shampoo Mohawk and bubble beard, playing in the bubbles singing his heart out. My sister couldn't talk from laughing so hard at just hearing it from her end.
Most songs were rewritten his way at any given time and he sang them most enthusiastically. Most of the time it had something to do with farting.
He was a dear sweet soul that was gone way too early. This was only a tiny bit of the person he was. I may tell more stories about him later.
I firmly believe he would get a kick out of the Hula doll idea. I know he would really like the thought of me getting out and seeing places. It's taken me over two years now to try to figure out what to do with his ashes. Nothing really felt 'right'. This has been really the only thing I have had any enthusiasm about. I hope to find some good places for the HulaJohns. A few places I've decided on already have some meaning, but other states are up in the air.
In remembrance
John Boatright
August 26th, 1972 - September 13th, 2012
#John #cancer
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