I’ve been calling him FlaMan (Florida Man) here on ababsurdo but his real name is John. He’s on the right in his signature hat with the GG on the left. He was the GG’s bio brother (one year older and fourth out of 10 siblings) and brother of my heart, especially since we traveled to Florida a few years ago to rescue him from an untenable living situation and I got to know him better.

His health had been declining for a number of years and took a rather sharp turn during the summer. Even so, we didn’t get up this morning expecting this would be his last day.

I hope it’s okay if I say he was a little eccentric. I mean, most of us are, right? I’ll maybe tell stories related to some of his eccentricities someday but only when I have enough distance from this day to filter them a bit. It would be disrespectful to tell any today although they are a huge part of why we loved him.

I think he was grateful to us for moving him back to Michigan where all of his living siblings reside. Although we packed up his belongings and did the driving, all of those siblings played instrumental roles in relocating him to a safe place. So we can’t take all the credit by any stretch of the imagination.

In his last years, he greatly enjoyed visits from his siblings, nieces, and nephews and especially liked to get kisses from “pretty” girls. Believe it or not, this baggy old blahgger was one of those [snort].

The Happy Dozen is down another one today. I loved him and we will all miss him. Godspeed John.

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