We lost our brother on Monday, he was only 41. Our hearts are broken, and we can't stop crying. He was an awesome guy, who loved his family!
I was the oldest of 4 sisters, and when he was born I was 13 years old. He was the first boy. I thought it was awesome for my mom to have a baby when I was 13 year old; the fact that the new baby was a boy made it even better!
My wonderful brother was always a joy to our lives. He always made us laugh, because he was a jokester from the beginning.
From a very early age John had ways to make everyone laugh; after all he had a captive audience of four sisters who just adored him. Eleven months and eleven days after he was born he would be joined by our youngest brother. After the youngest was born, we became a family of six children born to my mom. None of us were bothered by the fact that we had different fathers, we were siblings and we adored each other. We were Family!
As John grew he became the big brother, even though all his sister were older than him. He loved taking on the role of big brother. I often called him my little-big brother. I remember an incident when he was just a teenager. My boyfriend at the time, who is now my husband, bought me a small golden cross with a chip of diamond in it. When my brother, John, saw it he told me there was a diamond in it, so my husband must have spent a lot of money on it; therfore I should make sure I took care of it.
Recently my daughter has been going through a bad divorce; at one point we thought we may have to get her and her boys away quickly to keep them safe. MY brother said they should come to be with him, because he would make sure they were taken care of. He even offered to go out to the west coast with my husband when he went to my daughters side for the first part of the divorce hearings.
He met his wife, my dear sister in law, when he was a teenager befriending her first. The he proved the kind of man he was when they became a couple, because she was pregnant with my nephew. John stepped in and took over the role of husband and dad from the moment they became a couple. He became my nephews dad even though he was not his biological father, because that did't matter with him. He was his father in every other sense of the word. My nephew is in college now and a brilliant young man. My brother and his wife also have two beautiful daughters. He was a terrific dad, husband, brother, and son!
John was also a prankster and loved to play pranks on all of us. There were many pranks over the years. I remember a family vacation when we all went to bed he lined all the door knobs with peanut butter. He also put plastic cups of water on the ceiling fan. We all saw them there, and told him about it. The problem was we did not move the cups, so when no one was paying attention, he silently turned on the fan. As a result he made it rain in the room causing all of us scream. He laughed so hard.
He loved food and cooking. He often showed his love for food by cooking for everyone; then he would post his masterpieces on Facebook.
He gave the world's best hugs! He could engulf you in his arms, and hold on to you so you felt totally loved in his arms. I could really use one of those hugs right now!
That was our brother. He loved us all so much, and all he wanted was for everyone to come to Maine. That way we would all be together. He bought a huge house so everyone could fit in it when we visited. The house he bought also had a separate house for our mom right next door.
The biggest regret we will all carry with us, is we were too late coming to his home. We are all here now, in John's house, where we can see his touches in every room, but he is not here with us.
We are now and forever will be heart broken! We love you John Laurence Taylor III. You will always and forever be our little-big brother! We are so sad, because you will not be in our world any more. We look forward to seeing you again some day, but as long as we are in this world, we'll be missing you!
