R.I.P. - PinJohn

[chris-uk]

I received the sad news this morning that John has lost his fight against leukaemia. His son, Chris, contacted me and said:



"I'm sorry to have to tell you that my dad has peacefully passed away. He had side effects to his treatment and it was too much to overcome."




He asked me if I would mind posting on the forum to let his friends on here know the news. Of course, it's the least I can do to help John's family at this time. I've told Chris to stop by and read the forum at some point, because I know there will be lots of kind messages that follow this post, I hope it will help the family just knowing he has so many friends around world who miss him too.


John was a great person. I've known him a relatively short time, but it was his kindness and love of garter snakes that drew me and Char deeper into the Thamnophis world. I know he'll be proud that he managed to get us completely hooked on garters and pass on his passion for the little buggers. I'm going to miss chatting to him, he had a lifetime of knowledge about garters and natrix, but conversations invariably drifted away from snakes and he was just such an easy person to talk to about setting the world to rights, how boring football is, and the idiots you get in taxis. On the forum, I'm going to miss the weather reports from Liverpool from our friendly, thamnophiphile scouser in every birthday thread - the weather reports always made me smile and look out of the window.

Farewell and rest easy my friend, the world is a worse place today with your passing. And I pass on my deepest sympathy to the McCann family.

[Stefan-A]

My sincerest condolences to his family and friends.

[Natrix]

Unfortunately I never had the pleasure of getting to know John. I am sure that he would have been fun to know and was a support to both novice and experienced keepers alike. From what I have seen and read on the forum, John was a well respected and kind hearted man who will be greatly missed by many Thamnopholites. My sincere condolences go out to his family and friends both personal and vurtual.

[reptileparadise]

Nothing I can add to the kind words of Rod.

My sincerest condolences to his family and friends...

[guidofatherof5]

R.I.P my friend. We will have to meet and do some herping at a different time. Thanks for your friendship.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the McCann family.

[Mommy2many]

I am so upset to hear of this loss of such a good friend. Thoughts and prayers out to his family. John, we will sincerely miss you.

Le Ann

[snakehill]

R.I.P. John! I will miss you and your incredible sense of humour! Your posts always bought a smile to my face! Sincere condolances to family and friends.

[ScimitarX]

So sorry to hear of this... RIP John

[Char361979]

I will miss our long rambling conversations which never really seemed to go anywhere but were still very interesting and funny. I was looking forward to telling him we that our child is a boy as I know from our discussions that he was keen to know. I shed a good few tears this afternoon. May he find peace. All my love goes to his family.

Goodnight John.
XX

[EasternGirl]

It is so hard for me to believe this as it was only a month ago that we were chatting and laughing on the forum with John. I had never met him...but nonetheless, John had become someone who I considered a friend. He sent me the funniest Christmas card..and went out of his way to send me reptile magazines so that I could learn more about reptiles other than garters...so that I could "seem knowledgable and participate in forum discussions"...he said. Lol...He always made me smile and laugh with his jokes. I knew in my heart that he was a kind man and a good person. I had hoped I would meet him someday. Someday we will meet, John...until then, rest in peace my dear friend. I will miss you very much. My sincere condolences to his family.

Marnie

[mikem]

I truly am at a loss of words. I've been sitting here, just staring at the screen with a deep sadness in my heart. John, I'll see you on the other side, my friend. To John's family, my thoughts are with you. Be strong and always cherish the memories you have of him. That's how he will continue to live and bring smiles and happiness into your life.

[RicMartin]

My heart felt condolences
To his family and friends.
John, your humor was just too cool
To keep it all to our plane.
As sad as I feel for this news,
I'm glad that you are free of your pain.
My poems will never match yours,
Let's go for coffee and herping again,
Joking about aliens and cowboys,
In the celestial Great Plains.

What is remembered lives.

[infernalis]

Respectful condolences to everyone who will miss him.. Truly sad news...

Rest in peace John.

[EasternGirl]

Ric...I wish I had a "love" button to click for the poem that you wrote. It was beautiful and truly fitting for our friend.

John...I am so saddened by the fact that I will not be able to come to England to pay my respects to you...so I am burning a candle today in your honor and memory as my way of saying goodbye. May God welcome you into his arms and bless your family.

[Selkielass]

So sad to get this news.
My sincere condolences to all he left behind.

[indigoman]

My condolences to John's family and friends, I will always be grateful that we have met. if only on the forum.

[katach]

This is very sad news. I will miss his wonderful poetry, kind words, and delightful sense of humor. My heart goes out to his family and friends. Rest in peace my friend.

[kibakiba]

Rest in peace John. I had really hoped I'd get to meet you and crack a few jokes about blond girls with you... :)
All of us are going to miss you terribly.

[aquamentus_11]

John was the first person to reply to my first post. I didn't know him well, but he was always good for a quick two cents and ready to make any overly serious debate look as ridiculous as it truly was. It won't be the same without him.

[drache]

this is very sad news
my sincere condolences to all relations

[gregmonsta]

John always had something to share, be it on this forum or others. As any true garterfan this place became his virtual home and we're lucky to have had a chance to meet him here at least. I'm very upset at not getting to meet him in September. With all the drooling we were doing over what was going to be available in our PMs as well as teasing him with coffee.

Yesterday I stumbled across a book he had sent me, two of his snakes shed one after the other and I actually received my second ever garter bite from the big marcianus ...

... and now I can't tease that scouser about sending me a mis-behaved snake :p!!! .... gutted :(

[johnc79@hotmail.com]

My thoughts are with his friends and family. A very sad time for all in the herp world. :(

[nitrogen15]

R.I.P. PinJohn. You made me and many other forum members feel welcome here. My condolences to the family.

[chris-uk]

Chris has just let me know that the funeral will be on Friday at 9:30.

Char and I are planning to be there and will take a card into which I'll insert a printout of this thread so that the family can read the messages from his online friends.

[guidofatherof5]

Very good. Thanks.

[EasternGirl]

That is wonderful Chris, thank you. I'm so glad that you and Char will be able to attend the funeral. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we will all be there in spirit, wishing that we could really be there to give the family support during this time and to say a final farewell to our friend.

John...

The forum will not be the same,
now that you have gone.
But we will find a way,
to somehow care on.
With thoughts of you,
We will talk of the snake...
But always remember to take a little break.
To laugh and joke and think of the times,
When you would post your funny little rhymes.
And bring smiles to our faces throughout the day,
to show us you cared in your special way.
We will always remember you our forum friend...
Farewell John, you will never be forgotten.

-Marnie

[kimbosaur]

Rest in peace John. The forum truly will not be the same without you.

[Light of Dae]

I just can't believe he's gone... Rest in Peace dear friend...

In the battle, God won out.
We wanted you here,
your family wanted you there,
your non forum friends wanted you over there,
God spoke out above all of us and said it was His turn to hold John by the hand.
John is up there.

I'll meet you one day John.

[mustang]

RIP, thank you for sharing your wisdom here john, you were much appreciated.

[angrygamer]

Sorry to hear this, I just got word. I barely knew him but I enjoyed reading his posts very much. I just hate it when bad things happen to good people.

[charles parenteau]

I'm very sad to hear about John !We lost a very important member....My condolences to John family and friends....

[scorpion0151]

I only had the pleasure of meeting John once but he definatly left a lasting mark on me and will always be remembered. R.I.P John I hope there's a part of heaven reserved for herping, I'm sure we'll all meet you there some day :)

Anyone going to Donny in September, I think we all HAVE to meet up now and have a coffee in Johns honour.

[guidofatherof5]

I only had the pleasure of meeting John once but he definatly left a lasting mark on me and will always be remembered. R.I.P John I hope there's a part of heaven reserved for herping, I'm sure we'll all meet you there some day :)

Anyone going to Donny in September, I think we all HAVE to meet up now and have a coffee in Johns honour.

What a wonderful idea. Raise a cup for me.;)

[PINJOHN]

Hi Everyone,

This is Chris again, Johns son. I would just like to thank everyone for the kind messages received over the past week or so. Me and my family were touched by the truly kind words that have been posted about my father. Just reading through them was an emotional experience and plenty of tears were shed! (excuse the pun on a garter snake site.... i'll get my coat :-p ).
Chris attended the funeral along with Char and i cannot tell you how nice it was of them to come. Chris passed my family a card and had gone to the trouble of passing on all the messages from this forum that members had posted about my dad. This was quite simply amazing and just to see how many members my dad had an effect one was unbelievable. Thank you all! He loved being apart of this forum, part of this community and the hours he would spend at the computer contributing were precious to him. So thank you all for your friendship and your kind words!

In memory of our father me and my brothers have arranged a couple of fundraising events. If anybody would be interested in donating to either, all funds raised will be donated to leukaemia lymphoma research (Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research - beating blood cancers | Myeloma Leukaemia Lymphoma (http://www.leukaemialymphomaresearch.org.uk))

Firstly my Brother John and Anthony will be taking part in a charity bike ride from Liverpool to Chester. Details here https://www.justgiving.com/John-McCann

A (https://www.justgiving.com/John-McCann)nd a couple of months later i will be running the Great North Run in Newcastle which is a 13 mile run (half marathon). I've never done a run before so the training starts now! https://www.justgiving.com/account/your-pages/chrismccann87



T (https://www.justgiving.com/account/your-pages/chrismccann87)hank you all for your support and a special thank you to Chris and Char who have been wonderful to our family, we wish them well with the baby on the way!

Thanks
Chris

[guidofatherof5]

It was truly our pleasure. Chris.;)

[EasternGirl]

It was honestly a pleasure knowing your father, Chris. I will never forget him. Thank you so much for taking the time to read our posts. I am so glad that I had the chance to be friends with John through this forum. Thanks to Chris and Char for taking our posts to the family and representing our forum at the funeral. It meant so much. :)

[katach]

Missing your weather reports in the welcome threads today John.

[Spankenstyne]

Oh man. Don't know what to say, sitting here in tears reading this. I haven't had much time lately for much of anything and just logged in to see what the address was again to send my "get well soon" card. So sorry to hear this.

Deepest condolences to Chris & the rest of the McCann family.

[chris-uk]

I was just reading back some of the posts in here, and found that one of the links Chris posted didn't work, but I've found a link to the McCann family's fund raising page:
Remembering (http://www.justgiving.com/remember/14820/John-Mccann)
So far they've raised £3,464 for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, with Chris still set to raise more when he runs his half-marathon in September.

I still miss the weather reports in the welcome threads, my weather reports are just a pale imitation.

[EasternGirl]

It's nice that you try to do that though, Chris...in honor of our dear friend. I miss him a lot too. We are thinking of you John! I'm sure you are running around in heaven with a coffee cup in your hand herping in the heavenly wild!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I'm so sorry to hear this.... John was a good man.... I had always enjoyed reading his posts. I've not been posting much, for many reasons, but I simply had to post and say that John, I'm very sorry to see you go... slither on in the sky my friend.

[chris-uk]

It's been a year today.

I had a coffee on my way to work this morning - it seemed fitting as a tribute to my friend John McCann. It doesn't seem like it's been a year, but it has and I remember him each and every time I look at my radix pair. I still think the forum is worse for the loss of Pinjohn as a member.

My thoughts today are also with his family, his children lost their father far too soon.

[Spankenstyne]

Tip my coffee this morning to our fallen brother. RIP PinJohn & thoughts go out to his family.

[guidofatherof5]

Miss you buddy.

[infernalis]

A year already. R.I.P.