I will always remember John as a gentle giant with a heart of gold and a sense of humor unlike any I have seen I first met John in 2nd grade and we forged a special friendship-the big guy and the tiny one. He was always there to protect me from anything-whether it was bullies on the playground or predators at parties.
John brought a sense of levity to any situation. Whether in the classroom, on the playing field or whenever we got into a jam when we were doing something we should not have been doing. I can recall a particular evening at Plainedge Public Library when we were in 10th grade. I was helping John with some homework-vocabulary words-and I guess he had enough of that. He got up, walked over to the giant globe that was in its special stand-you all remember that globe. He took it off its perch and just started dribbling it like a basketball around the library. I remember there was quite a few of us there, feigning our studies, and we all broke out in laughter. Needless to say, the library staff did not think it as hilarious as we did and swiftly proceeded to kick all of us out of the library.
But my best memory of John is the Saturday before Mother's Day when we were seniors. John drove over to my house and asked me to come to the stationary store in the Holiday Park shopping center to help him pick out a special card for his mom. After finding the perfect card and a quick stop at the 5 &10 for me to pick up some Cutex nail polish, we proceeded to drive home. Only it was raining and the windshield wipers on John's big old black sedan were broken. We attached ropes to the one on the driver's side and I sat in the back seat pulling it back and forth so that John could see out the windshield. Of course we were laughing like lunatics and I am sure it was a sight to behold. But we made it home in one piece. The gentle giant and the tiny one.
Diane Cusimano (Greene)
I will always remember John as a gentle giant with a heart of gold and a sense of humor unlike any I have seen I first met John in 2nd grade and we forged a special friendship-the big guy and the tiny one. He was always there to protect me from anything-whether it was bullies on the playground or predators at parties.
John brought a sense of levity to any situation. Whether in the classroom, on the playing field or whenever we got into a jam when we were doing something we should not have been doing. I can recall a particular evening at Plainedge Public Library when we were in 10th grade. I was helping John with some homework-vocabulary words-and I guess he had enough of that. He got up, walked over to the giant globe that was in its special stand-you all remember that globe. He took it off its perch and just started dribbling it like a basketball around the library. I remember there was quite a few of us there, feigning our studies, and we all broke out in laughter. Needless to say, the library staff did not think it as hilarious as we did and swiftly proceeded to kick all of us out of the library.
But my best memory of John is the Saturday before Mother's Day when we were seniors. John drove over to my house and asked me to come to the stationary store in the Holiday Park shopping center to help him pick out a special card for his mom. After finding the perfect card and a quick stop at the 5 &10 for me to pick up some Cutex nail polish, we proceeded to drive home. Only it was raining and the windshield wipers on John's big old black sedan were broken. We attached ropes to the one on the driver's side and I sat in the back seat pulling it back and forth so that John could see out the windshield. Of course we were laughing like lunatics and I am sure it was a sight to behold. But we made it home in one piece. The gentle giant and the tiny one.