Episode 429 - Reflections on Friendship: Remembering John Bjorlie

I've always enjoyed the first couple weeks of November. Have you ever noticed there are a lot of birthdays in early November? Check it out yourself with your Facebook friends.It's an extraordinary run of birthdays. I liked pointing out to these folks that more than likely their parents had a good time on Valentine's Day nine months earlier.Those first two weeks were always fun, but that's all changed. On November 13, John Bjorlie passed away. John peacefully passed away with his sister Lisa by his side.And in John like fashion, the day he passed happens to be his sister Lisa's birthday. That is so John. John was always looking for a way to make people laugh or cringe.I always thought John would have made an exceptional writer for late night talk show monologues. He was that funny with a wit as sharp as a bandsaw.In fact, there is an image of John I recall often which we made a couple of trips to Vegas for the ReMax Long Drive Championships. The event was about an hour north of Sin City and Jim, Jeff, John and I always had a good time. One evening we were headed to the casino.John had his gambling clothes on. They consisted of khaki slacks, a polo shirt, comfortable shoes and the ever present cardigan sweater with the bottom three buttons secured.This was topped off with a Seagrams in seven as he sat at the blackjack table, cigarette and cocktail in hand. Damn, he could have hosted that late night talk show. John always marched to the beat of his own drum or to the keys of his own piano.And speaking of piano, he once invited Cindy and I over to dinner. He was going to make a roast, but he'd never made a roast before on his own. So Cindy sent him the her recipe and the way to do it.And then as we got there, the place smelled great and we sat down at the piano and John actually worked through a really cool rendition of what he called it was pot roast songs and it was basically just the intro and opening of maybe 26, 27 different songs. And it was really fun to listen to him. And I recorded it actually, and I think he recorded it as well.But I got to get back to this part of the story. The roast was amazing. Even Cindy just said it was one of the best pot roasts she ever had. That was John.A lot of people have asked me how I'm doing, how I feel. You know, I was very close with John and I think there's mostly relief, the fact that he's moved on, that it was very peaceful.I think it was time and boy did he ever add a lot of time on to what doctors were telling him? It was a solid year, if not more. And I'm really happy that Lisa was there. Really.There's a group of people that I'm so happy were able to be very close to John through this final call it year to six months. There was Steve, who was someone he went to school with, who could help with a lot of the medical stuff.And there was Lisa, who not only grabbed a seat on the piano bench next to John and sang beautiful songs with him, but she was there a lot towards the end and even before that. So that was awesome.And Teresa, John's friend, who would show up every night just to see if there's anything he needed or anything she could do to make him feel better.And then Paul, I mean Paul was in and out of Rhode island to Phoenix quite a bit, getting everything set up and making sure that everything went smoothly when the time came. I posted the video that John recorded on June of 2024 where it was to be published after he passed away. It's currently sitting at around 3,000 views.And lots of comments from lots of people who knew him, some people who met him for the first time, possibly maybe his wake that he attended in Rome, New York. And a lot of those comments talk about the book. I guess John talked about the book more than I thought he did when he was on his die happy tour.The fact that I was putting together lots of different notes and interviewing a lot of different people and just kind of getting ready because I just knew I couldn't start the book until after John was gone. In my mind there were going to be other pieces to the puzzle that had to fit before I could actually really start the writing part.I do have a lot of stuff sitting in my Google Drive, including a 1300 page PDF of Facebook messages that John and I sent back and forth from 2014 to 2024. Many of you were a part of that tour. I got to hear a lot of conversations about how it went and different parts of the country he visited.And I think there are numerous folks who are saying that there couldn't have been a better guy to run a die happy tour than John Bjorlie. So I will reach out to everyone who requested a copy once it's done. I also was pretty sure I put it down that I have no idea when.I'm thinking maybe next summer somewhere in that range would be ideal, but I'm going to be working on it, you know, a little bit every day just to make sure that I don't lose focus as I continue to share those stories. You know, Cindy and I sitting on the couch last night, there were four or five more that just kind of came. Came to light again. And it's.Wow, I gotta be jotting this down. One in particular was the trip we made to see our son Kevin in Syracuse. And I said, we have to go to Rome, New York. That's where John was born.We've got to go. And I know where he played golf for the first time was Cam Rhoden. It's a little track up in Rome. And so sure enough, we headed to the East Coast.We made a little detour up into Rome, found the golf course. No one was in the shop. But then someone who was on a tractor came over to us and said, can I help you all?And said, yeah, I'd just like to, you know, see the shop. A good friend of mine played a lot of golf here many, many years ago. And he said, sure, come on in. And gave me little stories about Cam Rhoden.And I was able to buy John a Cam Rhoden golf cap. So. And up until, you know, just a few months ago, he talked about how much he loved that hat because it was the first place he played golf. Cam.Cam Rhoden. So if you're ever in the Marom area, look it up. Cindy and I walked a couple of fairways.It was a lot of fun, but we didn't play golf will be a big part of the book because I met John Bjorlie for the first time on a golf course. It was the Weston Kierland Golf Club. It was summertime, rates were low and smilin.John Dunn introduced me to the group that was called the Friday League. Every Friday at 1 o', clock, they would head out to a course.In the summertime it was a lot of different courses because the price went down in the wintertime. It was mostly a city course like Encanto or Maryvale or something like that. I had a great day that day. I shot 77.And then I was granted a nickname right on the first day. Lucky seven, because my index was seven at the time. And so they were kind of giving me a hard time about it, and it was a lot of fun.And that Friday League became a part of my life for a number of years. You know, John was usually one of the players there. And then we graduated from that very quickly. We started playing a lot on Sundays.And that turned into something that lasted for close to 16 years, where we played as every Sunday that we Could. And I've talked about this before, but the conversations walking down the fairways were the best part of the rounds. Every single time.There'd be times John would make me laugh, as I mentioned earlier, make me cringe on a kind of a way off color joke. And it was a blast.And while others seemed to think that John just talked too much and hey, don't encourage him, I couldn't wait to get back down a fairway with him and continue a story that we had to stop as we got to a green on the hole before. As I sit here thinking about my golf stories with John, one of my favorite ones will be this. When I met him, he had never hit a hole in one.And in the course of about four or five years, he actually had three. And I was the only one that saw all three. So the first one was at Lookout Mountain? Yeah, I think 11th hole, about 160 yard par three.And like all hole in ones, it looked really good the whole way and then it disappears up there on the green. And he's very excited, not, not crazy excited. He wasn't whooping and hollering and screaming. He just was like, all right.And the good news for him was, you know, we had set up with the guys in the group that it'd be $25 for a hole in one if you got one.And John was the first one to do it and picked up his 25 from everybody but Jim Carlisto had changed the game with John and said, because we've never had a hole in one, it's going to be $100. So sure enough, Jimmy had to fork up the hundred bucks to John because that ace at Lookout Mountain. The second one was a Toka Sticks.It's a little course out near Gilbert, and it was a little par three that's now gone. They've redid the course a little bit, but it was only about 120 yards. And another ace right there. Kevin was at that one.So we're like, okay, John, another one, another 25 bucks and another hundred from Jim Carlos to who still had not had his own hole in one. And he'd been playing golf for a long time as well. So the final one though was fantastic. It was 17 at Papago. It's a very difficult par three.You're tired, you've been walking the course. It's 220 yard shot. He hit a three wood right at it once again.And we did not know it was in until we got up there because you can't see from the tee box. We get up there, we look in the hole. It's in the hole. And it's just like, you got to be kidding me, this third one.And so, of course, the phones get whipped out, pictures are taken, and they're all sent to Jim Carlisto because he's got another hundred dollars he's got to pay John. So John did a great job with that. He was able to end his golf career without ever sending any money Jim Carlisto's way.And then finally, you know, just to wrap this up, I just wanted to have a quick conversation today with a lot of people that know John and just share a few stories. My guess is that these will appear in the book. But there were four rounds of golf that I played.I flew out to Phoenix from Florida to play golf with John.And we knew it wasn't going to be John playing 18 holes of golf, but it was me and his son Paul, his good friend Vernon, who lives in Phoenix, and me. And the first round was at Western Skies. You know, we went to breakfast at Snooze and Gilbert and I loved that place.And they're not out here on the East Coast. And then from there headed over to Western Skies. And this is how John operated around a golf course.He's very by the rules, very strictly follows the rules. And he brought his bag that he hadn't played golf in a number of months, if not maybe a year.But he brought his bag and he paid for a full round of golf for himself and Paul, put his bag on the cart with Paul and rode around. Now, he hit a few shots, maybe off a tee box here and there. He definitely would putt around the greens, tend the flag and that sort of thing.But he just wanted to be on a golf course and be out there walking in the sunshine, and it was really fun. Then we played the next day at Aguilar. That's a city course near South Mountain. Same thing.John refused to tell the people, I'm just riding along, I'm not doing very well, that sort of thing. He wouldn't do that. Paid full freight for Paul and himself again. And away we went another round.And this is a course that John and I played a number of times. We both loved it. It was great to see him putting on the greens and walking a little bit when he could and then back in the cart when he had to.We liked Aguila so much. I came back out a month or two later and we played there again. And it was great. It was so much fun.John at this point, needed a little more time to get back to the cart. You know, we didn't. He didn't walk as much. Still was rolling putts. Generally, the game that he set up was whoever's farthest away from the hole.When everyone's on the green, I'm going to go roll a putt next to theirs so they can read the break and maybe get a birdier, at least safe par or whatever they're trying to do. I said, okay. And we all, we all bought in on that. It was great. For some reason, I just got lucky. And I was never the farthest one from the hole.So I looked at it looked like purely. You're not even. I don't get a single read. He goes, you gotta be farther from the hole. So it just wasn't going to happen.The final round was in June this year. Paul really wanted to play Scottsdale tpc, where they have the Waste Management Open. And I said, I'm in. This is going to be great. So flew out.We all got there early so we could hit the range and really just enjoy ourselves. But John had really slowed down by this time, so he stayed in the cart most of the time.But once again, when he'd walk up to a green and have his putter in his hand and roll a putt, the smile on his face, it just made it all worth it. He talked about how much he loved the fact that he was out on a golf course again.And it was just a treat for us to watch him be so happy and to be moving around and to enjoy lunch with us after the round. It's something I'll never forget.So if you haven't seen John's farewell video, it's in the show notes here on this episode 429 of the Real Estate Sessions podcast. You can go check it out there. It's on a few people's Facebook profiles. Mine and Lisa's his sister.And I promise you that I'll be working hard and often on the book. I want to make sure I do it the right way. I want to make sure it really shares the story of John Biorly and his journey.Well, that's all I've got for today. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening and you know, John was one of a kind and I miss him a lot.What I'll try to do or have little updates on the podcast about where the book's going, how it's looking, potential dates and all kinds of other things for those who are interested and thank you so much for for really sharing your stories in comments about John. I love those as well. Those will probably be a chapter in the book as well. So have a great day and never stop thinking of John.