Dear family, friends and colleagues of John,
It is time to say goodbye to John. He passed away peacefully in the early morning of Wednesday the 7th of October in Amsterdam and will be cremated on Monday 12th of October close to Delft.
He will find his final place of rest close to the university in Delft, where he devoted his life to science, friends and family.
On Monday afternoon, we will pay tribute to John’s life in a small setting with only direct family present. Unfortunately, current circumstances do not allow for a larger service. For now, this online destination serves as a place to come together and remember his life and recent heroic fight by sharing thoughts, memories, images and music: https://www.memori.nl/john-warman. As many of you will remember, John gave a huge party on his 80th birthday. Being a true performer, he presented his own life story in over fifty slides filled with photos and stories. You can find it as one of the first posts on the website.
John’s fall on Sunday the 4th of October was an awful twist of fate and a complete shock to everyone. He deserved to enjoy more of the light that was appearing at the end of the tunnel: his heroic five-month fight towards recovery. The fight against infections and ultimately a rare auto-immune disease cost him a leg but he simply refused to give up more than that. His mental strength was, and remains, incredible.
We feel blessed that the past months have given our family a lot of quality time together. We shared memories, stories behind weird and fun memorabilia, our worries, our hopes and our best jokes. We worked together towards a move to the Amsterdam area following 50 years of living at the Menno ter Braaklaan in Delft. A move that was planned on the exact date that he fell. The days between his fall and passing away gave us the opportunity to prepare for the unavoidable, say goodbye and be with him when he said his final farewell. The care and love that John received from everyone around him over the past months give us a lot of comfort and hope. Most probably over a hundred medical staff of all sorts were involved during his recovery and final days. We will never forget them. John enjoyed meeting people and he definitely got his money worth in that respect. He was far from alone.
We will all remember John for the rest of our lives and hope to adopt part of his mental strength, positivity and humor that he has shown us and the world.
John summarized it in his final message that he sent just hours before his fall: “Take it Easy. Love, J.”
Kind regards,
Peter Warman, also on behalf of Marilyn, Andrea, Eva, Sophie, Ruby & Danie.
• Address family service: Crematorium Hofwijk, Delftweg 230, 3046 ND, Rotterdam
• Marilyn’s new address: Laan van de Helende Meesters 54, 1186 AM, Amstelveen
• Final resting place: Begraafplaats Jaffa, Jaffalaan 10, 2628 BX, Delft
