I will miss you John Lowry…

Hi John…I know you’re looking down, “chuckling to yourself”, watching my tears wet the keyboard as memories flood my conscious flow. I just found out you’re no longer here with us, and I’m heartbroken. There are no words to capture what I truly feel. A hole opened in my heart when I heard about your passing. Remember, my friend, when we would sit for hours on the river boat that was moored on the klong, drinking Chang beers, and talking about our life experiences. I reveled in the fact you cared. You accepted me for who I am, who I thought I was, and what I wanted to be. I was slightly jealous of you because I saw the part of me in you that I wanted to be. When I was lonely in Thailand, you would text me and ask if I wanted to have dinner. We would watch the sunsets together marveling at their beauty and then it would rain and we would lose ourselves in the torrential downpour.
After classes at SKR, we would ride together with the rest of the English speaking teachers in the van back to our apartment complex. We would joke about our day and then I watched you place your neck pillow around the back of your head signaling it was time for quiet in the midst of the traffic chaos. At the conclusion of our 20-30 minute drive, I observed you scamper from the van, walk down the street with your head down, head over the bridge, and forge ahead towards our apartment complex. At first, I thought your behavior was odd, and then I figured out you didn’t want to be wearing a collared shirt and tie for any longer than you had too. You were magical as though a unicorn had entered my life and for the first time, I could simply be myself. I told you things about me that I thought I could never share. And yet you still accepted me for who I am. Secretly, I wanted so badly to visit you in Thailand again and that has been stolen from me like a thief in the night. Death entered our lives and determined our fate. I’m sad because Thailand’s students lost a caring friend and educator, and we lost an unfettered soul. See you soon; I will miss you John Lowry.

Link to John’s Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10158468656189684&set=a.482937434683