Today is John's 58th birthday, I would like to share a few personal stories to remember him.
In '97 we moved from midwest to SF and stayed temporarily in the same corporate housing complex with John and Lisa. We didn't have a car and we didn't know the area well neither. One day John called us and asked us if we were interested in checking out a small town called Alameda together. That's the first time we drove past the Bay Bridge, Webster tunnel, and toured the beautiful island Alameda with a near empty tank in his Nissan Altima. Both families eventually moved there within a month. Although we moved to a few other cities in the past 20+ years, Alameda always has that special place in our hearts since it was the beginning of our journey here, and John is our special friend with warm heart for this introduction.
In '13 John and I were invited to attend the same conference in Beijing, and we flew together in a United flight. During the flight, we had a long chat for a few hours at the back of the plane rest area. It started from Alan Greenspan's new book and how his policy drove to the last financial crisis, and moved on to Fed's QE program to save the financial system, and to a crazy new thing called Bitcoin. That long chat was both inspiring and intriguing for me. Although he works in the industry, John is a scholar with genuine curiosity on exploring new things.
In the summer of '20, John texted me and asked me to check out a new film called "1917". The film was about an English solider who fought through the near death adversities in WWI to complete a mission successfully. I watched and enjoyed it, but didn't think too much about it then. Now as I reflected in this past week, I think in his mind John wanted to be that brave soldier, to fight through adversities, and to complete the mission. He was brave, confident, and focused to win this war against the disease.
Iris and Tori, your father will forever be remembered as a friend with warm heart, a scholar with genuine curiosity, and a solider with audacity against adversities. His characters made him special for all of us. He is a good man.
John, I feel I can hear your vintage loud laugh after hearing the above stories, and your usual humble response "I tried my best". I want to tell you that you will also be remembered to make a lot of friends miss with tears in this past week. You left too early, and we miss you dearly.
Goodbye, John.