A Message from John's Sister

John is my brother. On behalf of my family I want to personally thank each and every one of you who have shared your special stories and memories of John. I am overwhelmed by the wonderful words you have all shared. I am not surprised that John touched so many peoples hearts. John was indeed the very best, most genuine person I have ever known. He has been my mentor my role model and my friend. It gives me great pride to know that many share the same feelings about my big brother and although my heart is broken, I know John would not want me to be sad and hurt, in fact he would want me to remember the cherished times with a smile on my face.
He will be always missed and I will carry him in my heart forever. My heart and my love, always and forever.

I have so many wonderful memories of John, I could write all night. In June of this year John took our mom and I to San Francisco for 5 days and that has been the most consecutive time I have spent with my brother in a really long time. Our first night there John and I put mom to bed and went for drinks. We sat and talked for hours about, life, work, and the future. John had so many plans and I'll never understand why this has happened but I will be forever grateful for the 5 days we shared and the special memories from that trip. John had planned every hour of every day that we were there, in fact he even slept with his laptop next to him (Seriously!) It would be 6 am and he would be online making sure he knew where we were going and what the day would bring. That was John taking care of everything as usual. What he had forgotten was that I was an incredible slow poke and not a morning person, but he didn't care instead he joked about me being a princess and rescheduled the days...

John is my daughter's godfather. Sofia is 3. She cannot comprehend this tragedy but she will always know her Uncle Johnny. John bought her a yellow baby boxster Porsche (just like his) last year. We live next to a bike path that is pretty steep. Sofia loved to ride her boxster down the path at a much faster pace than I have ever been comfortable with. There is a tree at the bottom of the path and usually Sofia has excellent steering skills managing to race down the hill and turn safely onto the sidewalk. Once and only once she managed to roll into the tree. She grabbed her boxster, came up the driveway and said "Mommy I crashed the Porsche" - Something I thought I would not ever here from my little princess - I couldn't help but laugh because the next words out of her mouth were maybe uncle Johnny can get me a brown one because the yellow boxster had a mark from the tree on the hood.

Last month my husband bought a 1988 Porsche 911. Not just any 911 but one that had been previously owned about 9 years ago by John. It was John's first Porsche. Brian would be joining the Porsche Club of America this year and he had plans to go to the track with John once the weather turned. I know that John will be watching down and guiding Brian and am so thankful we have a remembrance from John that was so special to him.

-Paula


(Editor's Note: I had a picture of the '88 911 John emailed me and thought it'd be appropriate to post that here along with Paula's message)