Jacques,
I tried to send John Cole a copy of your email regarding the meet
up at Jimmy's, but my attempt bounced off his email address. So, I
searched the web for any mention of John Cole, and much to my extremely
sad surprise I finally found his obituary:
Published in the Chicago Tribune on 10/6/2005 (a Thursday).
John C. Cole Sr., Ret. Lt. Commander USNR, age 73 of Wheeling.
Beloved husband of the late Joan, nee Whitehead; loving father of
John (Meg) Cole Jr., Teri (Ivars) Krigers and Audrey (Robert) Wolff;
dear grandfather of Alyssa, Neal, Kaitlyn, Derek and Mitchell; fond
brother of Carolyn, (Paul) Chambon, Donald Cole and Bruce Archibald;
uncle of many nieces and nephews. He will be deeply missed by his
loving friend Sandy J. Nank.
Funeral service Thursday, 8 p.m. at Kolssak Funeral Home, 189 S.
Milwaukee Ave. (2 blocks South of Dundee Rd.), Wheeling. Visitation
Thursday, 3 p.m. until time of service. Interment Friday, Abraham
Lincoln National Cemetery, Elwood, IL. In lieu of flowers, donations
to the donor's charity of choice, appreciated. For funeral info
847-537-6600.
John telephoned me shortly before Christmas in 2003 because his ability
to send email had for some reason up and quit, but he was still able
to receive email and he had recently received a couple of pieces of
email that I had sent him. He mentioned at that time that he was suffering
from a lung problem, I have forgotten the name of the disease, but
he described it as being a kind of super-asthma.
I located and telephoned the Sandy J. Nank referred to in the above
obit. She told me that John fell out of a golf cart on August 26,
fractured his skull and incurred brain injuries severe enough to require
a respirator. He underwent several CT scans and MRIs during the ensuing
weeks to determine the cause of his varying symptoms - some days he
would be perfectly aware and coherent, but at least 80% of the time
he was NOT and often was unresponsive and comatose.
The lung disease I mentioned above may have played a minor part in
these final problems because the medication that was being used to
treat it had weakened his immune system, increasing the risk of any
surgical procedure that might have helped.
John Cole passed away on the morning of Tuesday, October 4, 2005.
--Gene