Good night sweet prince

My whole world has caved in. 

Lee (Leejohnaire), my lovely sweet hubby, who many of you know had been living strongly and positively with esophageal cancer for almost two years, suddenly passed away on Sunday.  Fortunately he was in the hospital already and our really good friends, Jenny and George were with me.  Jenny hasn’t left my side ever since.   

For the last two days, I have been completely overwhelmed by the most wonderful, moving Facebook messages, texts and calls, telling me how much Lee influenced, inspired and touched people’s lives. I knew I had an amazing husband but never knew we had so many eloquent friends!  Truly wonderful, eloquent friends!  After the fantastic outpouring of love and support we received when he was first diagnosed with cancer, Lee knew I would be well taken care of when he was no longer with me and sure enough I’m now surrounded by so many friends offering help and care, taking it in turns to look after me.  It would definitely give Lee comfort.

Obviously neither of us wanted his time to be now, but we both wanted it to be quick, so I’m very grateful that he got that wish and that his personality, humour, positivity and unflappableness remained fully intact.

Last night, some of Lee’s tennis team mates organized a drink at a local pub in his honour (I went along for about 15 minutes, just to say hi and thank you).  Some of his old school friends in England did exactly the same thing (I’ll have to say hi and thank you to them some other time).  I loved the fact that two completely separate groups, in different countries, had the same thought at the same time.  Clearly it’s something Lee would have approved of.

Lee’s Zoology thesis at university involved tadpoles.  Twenty years later, someone found this out and people have been giving him weird frogs in various forms ever since, creating a very strange collection.  One of our best friends, Deb, sent me this smiling frog flower arrangement yesterday.  It couldn’t have been more perfect.  And it made me smile, while bawling admittedly, but I smiled nonetheless as we remembered Lee.

When Lee was no longer able to play tennis because his illness, he took up photography in a big way and I happily followed.  He was always more experimental and creative and understood the lenses and settings better than I, and he patiently encouraged and taught me each day.  We joined blip last October in the hope that we would learn how to use our cameras better and, like so many blippers, we were addicted immediately.  We’d wake up in the morning and say, “So, what are we going to blip today?”  It forced us to get out and about and to go to places and events we’d never have gone to before.  We both had great fun looking at all of your photos, getting to know you, and forming special bonds with several of you.  Blip was a godsend.  A wonderful diversion and distraction.  Thank you to you all so much for making it so. 

I'm going to turn Comments off just now. My unbroken run of blips has come to an end.  I hope to be back some day but devastatingly my inspiration has gone.

A Message from Lee Johns