I first met Johnno a fair number of years back some time after the rebooted chat had gone live, his affable demeanor made it very easy to like him as i'm sure most people who got to know him will attest to.
Over time as he felt comfortable opening up about his personal life it became clear that he was also a very, very conscientious person whom was deeply and unwaveringly devoted to his family. Not infrequently to the point of burning himself out.
The first example of this he shared was the fact that he lived with his grandfather as a live in carer for a long time already which by the end of it had been a period of twelve years before his grandfather's mental condition declined to the extent that it wasn't manageable for him anymore and required professional help, the which i personally had to persuade him of.
After this he'd moved in with his parents as they left california for oregon ostensiby to enjoy his father's retirement which tragically was not meant to be a long respite as his father was diagnosed with cancer shortly after which led to a number of years of what i can only describe as medical misadventures and midnight scares straight out of rescue 911, culminating in his father's untimely death which pained him greatly. In the backdrop of all this he also lost an uncle to a heart condition.
In his final days he tended to his father's estate and worried constantly about his mother's health as he voiced a lot of concern he might lose her next though, blessedly he was spared this.
On an individual level Johnno often lamented his inability to "read" in to social situations and people's intent, something he attributed to being on the autism spectrum though it was always unclear to me how acurate that assessment was coming from somebody as profoundly empathic as him.He had mentioned on occasion he feared he had inherited the heart condition that was rife among the males in family, on the rare occasions he felt depressed he'd voice his concerns about his longevity which ultimately proved to not be unfounded.
All of this aside, Johnno was a workaholic ( something we had in common), spending prodigious amounts of time on his animations and script writing, the latter of which he had sought to leverage to perhaps one day gain him a career which by all accounts looked to be an inevitability as he'd shopped his work out to be reviewed by industry professionals whom generally agreed he was extremely competent, his final work being deemed easily adaptable for series. Sadly i've only ever had limited occasion to collaborate with him myself but the times we did were wonderful.
His sudden passing has hit his friends, of which he had many in our community, hard. I offer my condolences to all them and his surviving next of kin.
On a personal note, i loved Johnno and i am going to miss him, it has been an honor and regularly a delight i got to be his friend. I have no doubt his just reward finds him well and perhaps we'll meet again some day.
