My friend John

[The Annoyed Man]

Please pray for my friend John and his wife Sharon. They live in Santa Fe, and Sharon called me last night to say that John had to be unexpectedly hospitalized yesterday morning after being too weak to get out of bed and severely dehydrated.

Apparently, he had been off his feed for a week or so, but they both thought he just had a touch of flu or something. Anyway, when paramedics got him to the hospital, his systems started shutting down, and it turns out that he was in sepsis. His kidneys quit. His liver function is way down. They've done emergency dialysis. The lab has identified the organism causing the sepsis, and it's one that nobody on his medical team has ever heard of before. He is intubated and being kept sedated.

Sharon is beside herself. She is a retired RN, so she understands all the implications. On top of it all, she is an insulin dependent diabetic, and she has not slept since yesterday morning. I'm worried about her taking care of her own health, because she's no use to John if she gets sick herself.

John is retired now also, but he was a civilian contractor who went to Iraq a few years ago. His specialty was biological warfare agents, and he was part of the search in Iraq for Saddam's WMD. He also was part of the testing of domestic facilities for exposure to anthrax after the outbreak of the Iraq war. It is my prayer that this is not something he picked up overseas that has laid dormant until now.

The one piece of good news is that his doctor had told Sharon that she didn't think John would survive the night, but he has done so. The bad news is that he is continuing to decline. Please pray for both of them.

[RPB]

prayers sent

[10Shooter]

Prayers sent.

[WildBill]

Sorry to hear about your friend John. Prayers sent.

[boomstick]

On my prayer List now...

[i8godzilla]

Your friend and his family will be in our prayers.

[flintknapper]

Prayers sent.

As you know...Sepsis is an extremely serious condition and many folks do not survive it beyond 48 hrs.

Just lost my Sister in Law last month to exactly the same thing.


But we will hope for a miracle in your case.

[The Annoyed Man]

Thanks for everyone's prayer support.

John went Home to Jesus at 12:30 this afternoon. I counted him a friend, and I'm going to miss him. He was a standup guy.

[Dan20703]

Prayers to his family

[Medic624]

Prayers for them both....

[mikeintexas]

Prayers sent...

[The Annoyed Man]

John will be missed. Sharon went home from the hospital after his death, and the house still bore the evidence of the paramedics a little over 24 hours previously. John's things are still in their bedroom. Memories of him are everywhere, and she's still in shock from how rapidly all of this developed. She and her son and daughter were going to get showered and cleaned up, put on some clean clothes, get some food into their stomachs, and then go to bed and get some rest. She hadn't slept since Wednesday morning when she had to call the paramedics.

I told her to phone me if there was anything I could do for her, but that I would leave her alone until this morning. She's in Santa Fe, so in a couple of hours I'll give her a call to see how she's doing.

She and John had been retired together only 3 years. They had moved from Kansa City, Kansas to Santa Fe, New Mexico and were settling down to enjoy their retirement. John had never had very many friends in his work life because he worked all the time and had to travel a lot—but in retirement he was making new friends and really beginning to relax and enjoy life. He was the recognized head of the local Tea Party movement in Santa Fe, and he and Sharon played a significant and material role in getting Republican Susana Martinez elected as governor there. (Martinez was born and raised in El Paso Texas.)

John bought his first pistol after retiring—an XD9 Compact—and set about obtaining his New Mexico CCW permit. Every time he and Sharon came to Texas to visit their daughter and grandkids in Plano, John and Sharon and my wife and I would get together and head over to DPC to shoot pistols together, and then we would repair to the Burger Island near my house for burgers and fries. (Their daughter is a confirmed vegetarian, and tried to feed them tofurkey at Thanksgiving; so they would get together with us behind her back and have juicy red meat together.) John eventually bought himself an AR15 and was really enjoying getting into the shooting world. The first time we went out shooting and eating together as two couples, it felt like we had known each other forever.

My wife and I are going to be driving out to California on the 19th of this month, and we were going to stay at John and Sharon's house in Santa Fe on the first night and visit with them.....maybe go out and get some good Mexican food together. We may still do that...we'll see....but if we do, there will be a big piece of the puzzle missing.

Sharon and I do a lot of work together on another website, and I've known her for over 10 years—but I am also one of the fortunate few that John began to count among his friends after he retired. I really liked the guy. He was funny, very intelligent, sweet natured, and enthusiastic about life and retirement. The last time we spoke was a couple of weeks ago. I had called to ask Sharon about something, and John picked up the phone. He was obviously not feeling well and was a little bit grumpy and anxious to get off the phone. Sharon came to the phone and said that John hadn't been feeling well for a couple of days, and that he was kind of worn out from all the Tea Party activities. We talked for a few minutes, and I hung up. I had no idea that these would be the last words I would speak with John. If I had known, I would have taken the time to tell him what his friendship has meant to me.

[Charles L. Cotton]

I'm so sorry to read of Sharon's loss and yours. All of you will be in our prayers. When I first read Santa Fe, I thought they lived just a few miles south of us here in Friendswood.

Chas.

[The Annoyed Man]

John was buried with military honors on Tuesday at the Santa Fe National Cemetary. Here are a couple of links to articles about him and a youtube video interview of him:

John Hosenfeld, 1945-2011: Tea-party activist dies from illness Steve Terrell | The New Mexican
Posted: Tuesday, May 10, 2011
LINK

Obituary at Legacy.com

[youtube][/youtube]