I met John on the first day of my new school (Seal Cove Elementary) when we moved to Prince Rupert in 1972. I was 11. He was one of the first people I met, and we had remained good friends all through elementary school, high school, and I would often spend the weekend with him when he was at UBC and I was at BCIT.
In my last conversation with him, he was ramping down for retirement, and planning on a move from Calgary to Vancouver Island. I said it'd be great to see him more often than once a decade.
Our friend Christine reached out to me this morning and asked if I'd heard that John died last Sunday. I hadn't, and I'm shocked and saddened. Me, with all the stuff wrong with me, is outliving many of my closest friends. This sucks. Carpe Diem.
John knew I was into watches, and part of that last conversation was about me helping him sell a watch he'd had in high school (a Seiko "Willard"). His parents gave him a Rolex when he graduated UBC, so the Willard was relegated to a drawer for the last thirty five years.