Countless childhood friends had remembered him. They remembered the moments. They tucked them away and then spilled them out onto a remembrance page on social media, like splashing teardrops releasing time-capsuled moments. The page was soaked.
He mattered. He was a part of their lives. He was a neighborhood kid, a school friend, a chef, a son, a brother. He was John D’Amelio, and the longtime Fair Havenite and chef at Rumson’s French Market passed away on Dec. 15. He was 52.
There was the girl who remembered her first Valentine’s Day gift from him, gifted in the school yard. She kept it for years. There was the kid across the street. The one with whom he grew up. The neighborhood kid. The neighborhood. There was the one who thought of him as a role model. There was the friend whose heart hurt over the loss, the cache of good times growing up now gone.
There was the sister, bereft, who remembered all the sweetness in her brother’s memory as she baked broken heart cookies for the holidays and forebodingly broke a few as she flashed back to how her and her brother were always dressed like twins as kids. There were so many people who had even the teensiest bit of a memory of John, dinging into the feed, adding yet another message of childhood times, trials, triumphs or condolence.
He is remembered. He likely had no idea how much. His family now knows. The love consoles … “it helps to know how many people loved him. I just wish HE had realized that …” John’s sister Deana said in a post.
Rest In Peace, Fair Haven boy. You are forever that kid from the block who is remembered … well.
From John D’Amelio’s obituary …
John passed away on Dec. 15 at the age of 52.
Born in Livingston, he spent most of his life in Fair Haven.
He was a chef and was employed by French Market in Rumson.
John is survived by: his loving parents John L. D’Amelio and his wife Rosemarie and Lynda D’Amelio and her husband Carlos Jacinto; his siblings, Patrick D’Amelio, Joanne Senatore and her husband Mark, and Deana Stowman and her husband John, Louie Gallicchio and his wife Lisa, and Maria Gallicchio Deluca; his godson, Cameron; and six nieces and nephews.
Arrangements are private and entrusted to the care of the Timothy E. Ryan Home for Funerals, 145 St. Catherine Blvd, Toms River, NJ. Condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.ryanfuneralhome.com.
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