I woke up on June 1st and realized…I didn’t have to go to work! Wow! No stress, no long drive, shopping center hours and no responsibilities. No store. Yet. That short lived sense of calm would not last very long of course. A few days off to relax after the hectic store closing and moving would be all that I had. This summer would be busy, busy, with construction on the new location. It would be myself and a few friends taking on the task to be ready by August 1st. I was using all of the same jewelry cases, minus a few, so that was a big hurdle overcome in the time constraint. Plus, I had to wait on the landlord to finish his work making the property code compliant with a new bathroom and HVAC. This would inevitably slow me down.
Meanwhile, another issue had kept me busy while I was handling the new store. My cousin John, about eight years older than me, wasn’t a blood cousin but my family was so close to his that we called his parents Aunt Jane and Uncle Dick. Uncle Dick was a huge mentor to my father in business and in life. They were very close. Growing up, our families spent many summers together on Long Beach Island at the Jersey shore. Our family history started on the island with a business relationship between the Tuckerton Lumber Company and my Dad and Uncle Dick. The latter being accountants for the business. John Sooy was like a big brother to me, his brother Rick too. I looked up to them growing up with their great cars, friends and so many girlfriends. So many memories listening to the great music of the sixties and seventies on the car radio when John would give us rides in his bright yellow 69 Chevy Chevelle. It had black letters on the trunk that read…”I am curious”…on it. Look it up..lol. Every Christmas Eve, The Sooy’s would be at our house for our big annual holiday party and John would also spend a lot of time at our house year round. His best friends were great guys too. John Scala, Bob Hawk, his brother Ricky. All too funny. Every friday night, my Dad would bring hardshell crabs home after work and John would be there among many other friends. A mini town hall, no topic was off of the table. Especially, the Philadelphia Flyers. My Dad and John split season tickets for the home games at the Spectrum. We all loved Hockey…in case you didn’t realize that yet! John had became a wonderful teacher in his chosen field. He worked with children who had disabilities and were challenged for his whole career. As we got older, we spoke occasionally, less than I would have liked. Life, work and family became my priority. John never had kids. He had so many that he taught and mentored that it really didn’t matter. His longtime love “Bobbie” kept him busy too. She was a great person and a big horse lover. They were her kids.
John had cancer. A terrible gastrointestinal disease that ravaged him after many hard fought years. This summer, we would reconnect. After many years of off and on communication, he was surviving mostly on his own. He and Bobbie had a falling out and John was living alone in the house they had purchased together years before. He looked awful. John was not a big guy. Small in stature, he had lost so much weight. He wasn’t eating much and although Bobbie was trying to help him, he pushed her away with his bad moods and attitude. He was dying. Lori would make him food for a week and I would drop it at the house for him. Sometimes, he wouldn’t come to the door so I would just text him to let him know that I dropped it off. He barely ate it. I would always find the containers neatly packed in his fridge. I contacted Bobbie and convinced her that he needed full time care. She was the only alternative to care for him as he deteriorated. She agreed and moved back in to take care of him whether he liked it or not. As the summer wore on and I built my new store, trips to John’s house would be the norm. I cherished our visits while we rehashed our past, talked politics and music and hockey. He was family, blood or no blood. As the cancer took its toll on John, I picked him up a mini refrigerator for his bedroom. He had a very difficult time using the stairs and weighed about eighty pounds. We laughed as he got mad at me and had me move the refrigerator about six times until it was in the exact position he wanted it in. Pudding and juice. That was all that he wanted. Not too long after that day, I had dropped in to check on him and he was mostly incoherent. Barely able to move, he opened his eyes slightly and gave me a smile. He knew I was there. A few hours after I left, I got a call from Bobbie that John had passed. Very sad. Too young, cancer claimed another great person. RIP brother.
On another note, as I write this memoir… I saw a Facebook post yesterday, posted by a friend. It was a link to an obituary for the daughter of one of his friends. I clicked on the father’s link and scrolled down, reading the many posts chronologing the young girl’s fight to survive. From a December 2021 diagnosis to her passing this week of May 2022. I felt the parent’s pain and cried while I read about their daughter’s trials and tribulations. All too familiar. The huge ups and downs and eternal optimism. In the end, a story too short and a life taken too young… Leukemia left its mark on yet another beautiful soul and her family. May she rest in peace.
Next Up: Grand Opening