My Memories of John from Dan Wendt

I was fortunate enough to grow up next door to this wonderful family from birth until I was 18 years old. They will always be my favorite family in the whole world. I could blog for hours and hours about the great relationship the Wendt's and Larson's shared. I had two front doors when I was a kid. How can I or any of us pick from all the memories we have of John but I will try. Even little things. Like when I was 16 and had my first job at Smith's grocery store, I would sometimes have to work until 1:30 am and had no car yet. John would always come get me in his blue boat, on time every time. When we would reach 23rd lane and Greenway he would always come to a COMPLETE stop on the major road Greenway, pause for a second, then laugh while saying "Oh" and turn into ponderosa north neighborhood.
John always made me feel welcome to hang out with his Mormon friends even though I was the only one who wasn't Mormom (I'm Catholic). When we were old enough for the Saturday Night dances, I really wanted to go and see what all the fuss was about. John took me right to the Bishop for a short interview and I received a dance card. I went to 15-20 of those dances and those were some of the best Saturday nights of my life. All thanks to John. I remember coming home with him from visiting his Grandparents in Prescott and someone was having car trouble and John asked if we should stop. I said okay but I don't think he was asking me, he was telling me. We got out and John helped them on their way and the look on that strangers face after John's help and his laughter was totally changed from when we first arrived. When my father suddenly died in 1996, John and the Larson's were at our house right away cleaning our house for us as we anticipated relatives coming in from Chicago. In a week that was a sad blurr of emotions for me, I always have that memory with me in my heart.
We have had alot of tragedy in our little culd-a-sac. Darren Foster, Dan Brown, my father, and of course John; all young people. I was wondering if we had some sort of curse on our street or something after I heard about John. However, after seeing everyone at the funeral and bonding again and seeing so many old photos and reliving so many memories, I understand now that we aren't cursed, we are blessed. It was one of God's greatest blessings of my lifetime to live next door to this wonderful family. Actually, I think we were the luckiest kids in the whole world. And John was in the very heart of it all.
Dan Wendt
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