Remembering John Louis Anzaldo – November 23, 1956 to December 29, 2017
By John Anzaldo, Jr.
John was a charming, passionate, and loving man who did everything he could to bring joy to others. He shared his love of Frank Zappa and the Grateful Dead with people around the world. His love of fly tying, fly fishing, collecting instruments, the Raiders, listening to music, going to shows, NASCAR, visiting nature, photography, and collecting art were all shared with everyone who knew him so that his blessings uplifted everyone.
His sense of humor was second to none. Even while battling leukemia and other health conditions that followed, his grace lifted the spirits of everyone around him. He shared his love so fully that we could all be at ease in blissful comfort even in the most prolonged silence together. John loved Hawaii, with the breeze, sun, rain, hibiscus, and plumeria. The peace he found there he carried with him everywhere, and he would try to bring that peace into the heart of anyone open to it.
He loved to laugh and to make people laugh. He loved to make people smile and to smile with them. He loved being able to fix problems, especially if they weren’t his own. He could fix anything, electrical, carpentry, upholstery, gas lines, plumbing, and even healed himself and others in times of sickness. It was important to him to advocate for leukemia patients while he was looking for a donor and after he found one. He had eighteen years following his bone marrow transplant, and he went into 6th gear for every one of those years. He traveled to the most beautiful places. He ate the most delicious food. He made the home of his dreams. He took breathtaking photos that spoke to the beauty he found in every inch of earth and every second of life.
John loved open spaces and he loved the open road. He drove with his wife to all the California Missions and cruised all of Route 66 in his little red corvette. He would just take off on exploratory photographic journeys and always found adventure, returning with photos of the stars, of unbelievable animal encounters, of wonders only he could see until he shared them with us.
John was born in Oakland on November 23, 1956 and raised in Newark, CA. He married Julie Poze on August 10, 1980 in Fremont, CA and they raised their son John, Jr. together in Fremont, CA. John worked for Pacific Gas and Electric for 34 years.
John will be missed by his wife Julie, his son John, his mother Sandra Silva, his father Louis Anzaldo, his sisters Rita Ponce and Kari Johnson, granddaughter Stevi Ibonie-Anzaldo, mother-in-law Philippa, his siblings-in-law Sandy and Debbie Poze, and many nieces and nephews and aunts and uncles. A memorial celebration of John’s life will be held on March 18, 2018 at the Recreation Hall at 711 Old Canyon Road, Fremont CA at 1:00 pm. Donations in John’s name may be made to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society: http://www.lls.org/
Fare you well, my honey, fare you well my only true one.
All the birds that were singing are flown, except you alone.
Going to leave this brokedown palace,
On my hands and my knees, I will roll, roll, roll.
Make myself a bed in the waterside,
In my time, I will roll, roll, roll.
In a bed, in a bed, by the waterside I will lay my head.
Listen to the river sing sweet songs, to rock my soul.
River going to take me, sing sweet and sleepy,
Sing me sweet and sleepy all the way back home.
It’s a fargone lullaby, sung many years ago.
Mama, mama many worlds I’ve come since I first left home.
Goin’ home, goin’ home, by the waterside I will rest my bones,
Listen to the river sing sweet songs, to rock my soul.
Going to plant a weeping willow,
On the bank’s green edge it will grow, grow, grow.
Sing a lullaby beside the water,
Lovers come and go, the river roll, roll, roll.
Fare you well, fare you well, I love you more than words can tell,
Listen to the river sing sweet songs, to rock my soul. – Jerome J. Garcia, Robert C. Hunter