John Marie St. Francis

John Marie St. Franceis and I met randomly at Saint Marks Coffee shop in Denver and spent the entire summer playing mind games with each other, the first time we hung out just the two of us we did not speak to see what would happen, etc.  When he went back to California and I returned to school we had an unspoken acknowledgment that we would not continue to contact each other in order to avoid nostalgia and inaccurate knowledge of the other.   He made such a large impression on me that I thought about him at least once a month for the past seven years.  I decided last week that the silence was too long for someone I connected with so well and looked him up online to sadly discover that he had not responded to my love CD that I sent him at the end of Sophomore year because he probably never got it before he died.  Our summer together was the last of his life, and he has lived in my mind for seven years.  It is a strange passing to mourn, knowing that he has been rotting for this long, and I have loved him as a special friend all that time wondering where he was and what he was doing, and still do.  I have two photos of him at home, which he reluctantly let me take because the picture below convinced him that he looked like someone he did not like.  We also talked about how we would want to be buried while eating late night at The Denver Dinner.  I wanted to have a tree planted in my chest, he did not know what he would want.

 

John Marie St. Francis

Ventura County Star

(June 14, 2003)

John Marie St. Francis, 22, died June 8, 2003, in Salinas, Calif.

Mr. St. Francis was born May 20, 1981, in Martinez, Calif. He graduated from Eaglecrest High School in Aurora, Colo., in 1998. For the last four years, he attended St. Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula and had just graduated with a bachelor of arts degree on May 17. He was planning to teach in Europe for the next year. John was a world-class fencer who twice won the Junior Olympics for his age group.
He is survived by his parents, Michael and Valana Stevens; sister, Fiona; and brother, Peter.
Rosary will be recited at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, June 15, at St. Thomas Aquinas College. Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Monday, June 16, at San Buenaventura Mission, at a time to be announced at the rosary. Interment will take place at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park.
The family has asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made in John's name to St. Thomas Aquinas College.
Arrangements are under the direction of Pierce Bros. Stetler Mortuary, (805) 525-5595.

This obituary originally appeared in the Ventura County Star on June 14, 2003. Reprinted with permission.

 These are Google street views of the place where he is laid to rest, the only visitation I get to indulge in.