Happy Birthday John

Christopher Jonathon William Bursnall

9/12/85 – 9/19/00

Today would have been my godson John’s 20th birthday. Here he is at his 8th grade graduation in June of 2000. Little did we know then that in less than 3 months, he would take his own life, one week after his 15th birthday.

I was pregnant with Sean at the time, having one month to go before delivery. John and I spoke often of how I would like him to treat this new addition to our family. I wanted John to teach Sean some of the things that only a brother could teach. I was looking forward to the two of them spending time together. We gave Sean his name because it is the Irish for John. Both shared the middle name William.

My husband loved John like a little brother. They had grown up with very similar backgrounds. Both were born while their fathers were in the Air Force. Both had mothers who had been adopted, and not treated very well by their adoptive mothers. Both had experienced the divorce and remarriage of their mothers. Both of them loved computer games. They would sit for hours on end playing Warcraft and Diablo. John would help Vince with his leather work for the SCA. They had started working on enclosing our porch to turn it into a computer room, because we needed the room for Sean.

This is a melancholy time of year. I look forward to Sean’s birthday every year, but also have a feeling of sadness knowing that these two never met. We’ll never know why John felt compelled to take his life. We only know that his is missed every day, and that our lives were richer with him in them.