I consider myself the luckiest to have had crossed paths with Jonathan. Jonathan was everything that was good about someone’s life. He had an intense and unstoppable drive and passion for living, particularly for trying and succeeding to make the people in his life happy. He was always trying to make someone smile or do something nice for them so that their life would be better. He understood pain and darkness, and had his fair share of both, but he refused to ever let it bring him down for long. Right now it feels like someone took the sunshine off of the earth.
He was a family man. Always extremely protective of his mother and sister – they were the center of his universe and I have never witnessed any other person in my life love their family the way that Jon did. When his father was ill, he went to see him every chance he had. I called him Jon – he let me even though that wasn’t technically his full name. Jon was gorgeous and always had the boys and girls chasing after him. Whatever “it” is, he had it.
Throughout our years together, we had lived, worked and gone to school together and we spent most of our time fighting our way through the world. We considered life a type of fun/humorous battle we faced with arms and heart wide open and made the most out of it. When we drove, Jonathan was always the driver, he was always the stronger one, always the one to get us out of trouble and save us. If there was ever a moment of sadness in my life, Jonathan would map out a plan to make it better and then follow through. This usually involved large portions of chocolate cake and cable television. Sometimes it was having a chrstina aguilera marathon – where Jon would find every possible internet video clip of xtina and make me watch them with him, and sometimes it was just talking about the problem – he was one of the only people in my life who would understand my jokes and actually laughed at them – genuinely. He really understood who I am. There was a very personal memory from my childhood that I shared with him once. Months, almost a year went by, and Jonathan still remembered the story and threw me a surprise birthday party – which at that time truly meant the world to me and actually healed a deep wound that had never closed. He had that rare ability.
I would love it when he would say “ okay skippy” to people when they would say something awkward or completely out of left field. He would then proceed to walk away while the other person was still thinking about who skippy was. He was Samantha from sex and the city. He was Emmet from Queer as Folk. He was an artist in every aspect of his life – he had an amazing gift of being able to physically create the visions inside of his mind. He was completely open minded and spoke his thoughts without hesitation. He didn’t beat around the bush ever. You knew when he was angry or upset because his face would immediately turn red, every time, without fail. You would never want him to stay angry so you would do whatever it took to win him back. You never wanted Jon to be grumpy.
The loss of Jonathan on our earth is immense and immeasurable. It is the kind of loss that makes you question faith and god and makes you bitter and angry. But when it comes down to it, I know that only a mighty power could have brought us such a beautiful man and I truly believe that Jon is in heaven, safe, and free from the uglinesses of the world that he tried every day so hard to remove. I think we all know how lucky and blessed we are to have even crossed his path and I think many of us are feeling that very heavy weight in our chest and body and a cloud of depression and anger hovering over us.
What would Jonathan do? He wouldn’t be able to sit still until your heart was light, you were laughing and you felt okay. If he had it his way right now, he would be dancing with a big grin on his face, with his head turned to the left. I know that Jonathan would not be able to rest until he knew that we were ok. His biggest pet peeve was sadness within those that he loved. He may not physically be with us anymore, but I am sure god has taken him in with the same open arms that he took so many of us in with. I plan on keeping his legacy alive within me and spreading it out to everyone I meet. I’m not sure I would still be here today if Jonathan hadn’t entered my life and for that I thank him. He definitely raised the bar on true friendship and I will forever consider him my closest and best friend. The time that me and him were friends was the happiest time of my life and nothing has the power to ever take that away from me or any of us – this is what he left us with and it is more than most people can give in a lifetime. Hopefully we carry on and share his spirit in every way, the world needs that.
I love you Jon. I will always. Love, George
