You Learn Something New Everyday

The other night, Mike & Gina along with Mom & Dad were sitting out on the deck. In the background, we were listening to our favorite radio show, Vin Scelsa on WFUV in New York. Although we never heard our DJ of choice on WFUV ever play Dave Matthews before, we quickly realized that Vin was playing a live recording that the band made in the Gorge in Washington State in 2002. Vin played it, of course, in recognition of the tragic death of LeRoi Moore, the band's saxophonist who died on August 19th at a relatively young age.

Listening to Dave Matthews in such an unexpected setting started a discussion as to how Mike became a veritable "groupie" to the Dave Matthews Band, literally traveling all over the country to see his concerts. In fact, Mike & Gina had plans to see Dave Matthews in the Gorge this Labor Day weekend but changed those plans only recently. Anyway, after associating Dave Matthews with Mike over all these years, we were surprised to learn that it was actually John who turned Mike onto Dave Matthews years ago before the band achieved any degree of its current success. It was through John, when he was at Virginia Tech, that Mike went to his first Dave Matthews concert many years ago.

In any event, Mike then relayed a typical John story from not too long ago. Mike, John & some friends had plans to go to a Dave Matthews concert locally. John, however, was going to go directly from work. Mike, seeing that the weather was turning inclement, stopped by John's place to pick up a slicker for himself; not thinking to get anything for John believing that he was already prepared. Well, you can guess it, John was the only one to show up at the outdoor concert without a slicker and he proceeded to get soaking wet while his brother sat next to him staying relatively dry in one of John's slickers. Nonetheless, JW didn't allow the weather to dampen his spirit and he proceeded to enjoy the concert in typical John fashion, getting the most out of life at every turn, no matter what the challenges.

In order to gain an appreciation of the music John loved from a few years back, you can hear Dave Matthew's live rendition of the Johnny Cash hit, "Long Black Veil," by clicking on this (the second) link.

Reflections

This blog is intended more than anything else to be a reflection of John's life. In that vein, I thought this picture which I had taken earlier of the sun rising over St. Clements Bay on a tranquil morning most appropriately reflects the theme of JW's blog.

New Life ...

... flourishes! Note the newly hatched birds this past weekend from a nest in one of the cherry trees in JW's memorial.

Nothing Went Unsaid

Immediately after John's death, I began to scour the Internet looking for information to help all of us understand and cope. One of the first things I recall finding was an article that talked of the many challenges in dealing with the death of a child. The article indicated that one of the most difficult things, especially when a child's death is sudden and unexpected, was having to deal with things that were left unsaid. We both took solace from that because we knew right away that with regard to JW, as with all our children, there was nothing left unsaid -- we knew that John realized how much he was loved just as we knew how much John loved us.

That solace was reinforced just recently when I was searching my computer looking for a particular document Jessica wanted. In doing so, I stumbled upon a copy of the note we had stuck into John's card for his thirtieth birthday (his last). We share it as a reminder to all of us of the importance of never leaving anything unsaid, especially with respect to those we love.

You can read the note by clicking on the image.