2 thoughts on “Celebration Of Life”

1. Jon: There is a lot that could be said about this man he was honest, sarcastic, the life of the evening, unpredictable and in his younger years fought me to be the last one standing at the end of a long night. The Jon of his 20’s is the Jon I will always remember but the Jon the family man that I reconnected with a few years back is the Jon I am most proud of. I am not surprised he became a wonderful family man and I am grateful that I got to experience it. #gvegas
   Sean

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2. I wrote this for Jon’s celebration of life…. wanted to be able to leave it here too. Missing him!

   Hi. My name is Maggie Miller. I am so sorry that I am not there in person to deliver this but – the truth of the matter is – it is ENTIRELY Jon’s fault! More on that later.. I first met Jon in 2005. We met through mutual friends in the Wilmington theater community. I mentioned to him that I was interested in getting involved in theater and a week later I got a phone call from him saying “Hey. We need someone to play the role of Maggie in the show I’m doing right now and I remembered your name is Maggie and you do theater. You interested?” He will never know the doors he opened for me with that one phone call!

   From that point on we were fast friends. He was my coach, motivator, confidence booster and overall encourager “to grow a really big set.” We often met for pizza and just one beer before rehearsal (he said it made you a better actor) and I can still hear the way he made fun of me every time I had to evenly divide my toppings on each bite of pizza. When he moved away from Wilmington we kept in touch over email. I’ve recently found myself going back over old emails and in doing so I came to two realizations: the first is that I am not sure how we didn’t get fired for emailing so much and the second is how absolutely crazy he is about Cynthia.

   I will never forget when they first met. The smile on his face when he told me about her. I had never seen him smile that or seen him so happy. I think the only time there was any trouble was during Cyn’s brief affair with Napoloen Dynamite. But you will have to ask her about that …

   Jon was truly an extremely talented actor. Something not many people know. And really just a lot of fun to work with. In our first show there was a scene where I had to stick my head out to watch what was happening onstage while my body was backstage. Jon took it as a personal challenge to try to make me laugh and break character. Each performance he would up the ante – I remember being poked with broomsticks, silly faces and noises, trying to pull one of my shoes off, and he even threw pennies at me one night. I will say though that payback is hell and in a scene where there was supposed to be a fake slap I decided he deserved a real one. The look of shock on his face was PRICELESS.

   He was the best kind of actor. Talented, hard working, extremely intelligent and always easy to share a stage with. I think the only time we struggled was when we were cast in what we now refer to as the worst play ever to be onstage ever. It was Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus…. for those that don’t know it basically ends with Jon’s character (Titus) baking the children of my character (Tamora) in a pie and serving it to her for dinner. Before murdering her. The costumes were best described as slutty goth and it was being performed in a bar which honestly was probably a good thing. But we built a life raft and navigated the rocky waters of slutty bar shakespeare together.

   I last saw Jon in March over lunch (can we all take a minute to talk about how Nora was eating octopus and other things I was scared to try at the sushi place? I was amazed!). Anyway..Jon looked great. The best I had ever seen him I think. And Nora absolutely stole my heart as I’m sure she does everyone’s she meets. It was easy and wonderful see how much he absolutely adored her. As we talked naturally theater and auditioning came up. True to our friendship I was stressing out over auditioning. I shared how out of sorts and frumpy I felt since having a second baby but that my all time favorite show was coming up. I wanted to audition but I didn’t know if I could possibly pull myself together again. Lunch continued and finally I had to head home. We hugged and said we loved each other and for that I am so grateful. And by the time I had walked to my car I had a text from him once again giving me the same boost of confidence he had for the last ten years.

   Which leads me back to today. I waffled over that audition for the next few months (I can see Jon rolling his eyes) and when he died it felt like a slap in the face. I immediately decided to audition, if nothing else, for Jon and was cast as the lead. I can’t help but think he had a hand in that. Especially when re-reading one of my favorite emails from him:

   Hope opening night was great! I’m sure it was. I’m sorry I can’t see it live, but you know I’m your #1 fan. After all, who convinced you to get back in the biz???? Okay, that was a cheap shot… break legs you crazy tard! See you soon! Much, much love.

   Cynthia and Nora – I love you and can’t wait to wrap my arms around you. Jon – this one’s for you! Cheers!

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