A Garden Of A Man, John Scott

My friend of over six years passed away this week. We met him when we went to Longhorns Restaurant in Columbia then and he was training to be a manager and had to be a server first (formerly called waiters)

He was not a tall man in stature, but tall in everything else. He was a dear soul, always with a smile on his face and a nice word of hello to greet you. We followed him when he went to the new Longhorns that opened up in Essex about five years ago. He still remained the kind and caring person he always was and the customers and employees all adored him. During the year of 2011, he left the position there due to stress and long, long working hour and days. We helped (my husband and me) to secure him a new position at a nice diner on York Road in Timonium/Cockeysville area. He started there in November and seemed to be quite happy being a server with no stress of being in a managerial position. The customers cared about him there, in the short time he worked since November 2011.

He and I emailed three to four times a week and he always emailed me early in the morning hours when he arrived home from work in the old place and now the new working place. My husband and I were delighted to see him often now at the diner and always waved to him through the window parking lot if he was in that area in the restaurant. We always told the server where we always sit to tell John Scott, the Claymans were there. He would come over as soon as he could and we chatted and then he had to leave to take care of his customers. We last saw him this Monday night February 13^th. We chatted and he shook my husband’s hand and extended his hand to me too. I do not think I ever did shake his hand like that and it was a lovely handshake between friends. He said he would be back before we left, if he could to say goodbye. He was not able to return and I am glad I shook his hand and smiled our last goodbye.

He told us about his idea to become a nurse even this late in life. I and we encouraged him; it was never too late, even at age fifty-one to go back to school. He had an appointment the next day to talk to the community college finance and counseling department about all that was necessary. He had been there a few weeks before to get other information. He made the comment “that when I finish my nursing, I will still be able to work for about twenty years.” We agreed and of course, no doubt he would have been a compassionate, caring, knowledgeable nurse. He had been in the army and had been a medical assistant many years ago there for almost four years. We told him there was possibly some help he could get financially from the government since he was a former veteran.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a column called Weeping and Rejoicing published here in the Cockeysville Patch and in it, I mentioned four fine people I knew. He was one of them. He liked to garden in his back and front green areas of his home in Hampden and had once thought of going into the landscaping business. All of his neighbors commented constantly on how beautiful his gardens looked.

He leaves behind a lot of friends and Jerry and I are among them. He gave us several years ago, a plant for each of our birthdays and we planted one in our front and one in our back. We certainly hope they will come up soon. If not, they will be there in our hearts, because we will never forget our six year friendship with this delightful, smiling, caring and competent man.

He also leaves behind his sister, brother-in-law and he was an uncle too, to her children in Michigan.

I called in my article Weeping and Rejoicing mentioned above that I called my two plants John’s garden place. John Scott was like a garden himself; a gracious person when you were in his presence, a fine telephone speaker on the phone, a great email pal and we exchanged gifts at Christmas/Chanukah time each year. We gave him things for his kitchen enhancement and he gave us plants. For our 50^th anniversary, he gave us a small porcelain statue of a girl and a guy in pink and blue that he had purchased online for us and in the hole of the statue, he had planted some flowers. It stands in a place of honor in my entrance foyer minus the plant which passed on a while ago. The statue stands tall and now will be in memory of our fine friend John Scott and will remind us of the nice moments when we chatted through various modes of communication. Once, we took him out for his birthday to a restaurant in Cockeysville where he could be with us and not be the waiter, server or manager. We had a fine time.

We will miss you John Scott, but never forget you.