John McGhee Stephens

John was a shy little boy but quickly made a friend. He loved to be active, play with his cousin, Bryan Ginther and torment me, his sister, Catherine.

During the early part of his childhood, our parents along with our mom’s sister, Carolyn, had a river house in Sargeant Texas. We spent every other weekend riding our little motorcycles, fishing and catching crabs off the pier, climbing in the tree house, rolling down the hill, swimming in the river, waterskiing behind our uncle Lanny’s boat, putting on plays that our cousin Lisa Lee forced us to perform, making homemade strawberry ice cream at my aunt’s house a few properties down from ours, playing on the player piano, learning to play the game Risk, watching possums, snakes and raccoons around the property, learning to drive a car and riding around in my uncle and father’s yellow dune buggy. It was our childhood. Those years spent there with our aunt Carolyn, uncle Lanny, our cousins Duke, Lisa and Bryan were absolutely the BEST! John was happiest there because he was with family and surrounded by love.

His life in our childhood home in Briargrove Park was a blessing. We used to run around the neighborhood that was filled with other kids and be gone from the morning until night. Our mom used to ring a big black bell outside the back gate three times that could be heard blocks away. That was our warning to be home for dinner. So many times John and I would find each other on different blocks running for our lives trying to get home not knowing if the third chime had rung or not. We would be reprimanded if we weren’t in the driveway a couple of minutes after that 3rd ring!!

We both went to River Oaks Baptist School for most of middle school. Those were great times. Since John was a year older, I sometimes had his teachers. They all loved John. He always had a smile on his face, had tons of friends and made khaki’s look cool!!

For high school, my parent’s learned John was dyslexic. He attended the Briarwood School in west Houston for all four years. He graduated in 1986. John LOVED, LOVED, LOVED that school. Not only his teachers but especially the lifelong friends he made. You know who you are!! The best part of those years were so special because all of John’s friends and my friends, became friends. Kids from all the local and private schools around Houston knew each other and hung out together. It was so much fun!!!

John went on to get an associate’s degree in the culinary arts at TSTI in Waco. He met Charlotte, who attended Baylor briefly before dating and getting married in 1992. They went on to have 4 beautiful children. Channing, Hunter, Brooke and Jackson. John LOVED those kids more than life itself. He was so proud to be their father. When he spoke of any one of them, his eyes lit up!!!! Each one of their accomplishments consumed him with joy. He always spoke to me about them and how lucky he felt to be their dad.

John went on to battle some addictions but eventually overcame them through rehabilitation and much love and support from his family. John spent Christmas with me two years in a row after rehab and my kids today, will never forget the time they spent with their “uncle John”.

Going back to high school, when I mentioned John made lifelong friends, I wasn’t kidding. One of those friends is his wife, Bebe or Mary Gomez as some may know her. Bebe wasn’t just a good friend of John’s, but of mine too. She and I and John attended River Oaks Baptist together and Bebe was at my first slumber party! Her father and our dad went to Rice University together and were suite mates. Our mom, Martha and Bebe’s mom, Mary Jane were good friends because of our dads. During those years at Briarwood, John, Bebe and I spent plenty of time together. She is the same person now as she was then. Sweet, kind, honest, and a great conversationalist!!!

When John told me he and Bebe were dating, I remember freaking out with excitement and then fear. I was worried John could potentially “mess up” a sacred relationship that had a family connection. He ASSURED me there was no chance of that happening and that he KNEW he would ask her to be his wife. You see, Gilbert Gomez, Bebe’s first husband and father of her son Gilbert, were high school sweet hearts. Gilbert got to Bebe first and John always regretted being too slow to ask her out. What goes around, comes around, right? Personally, I think he chickened out because he thought she would say No! How wrong he would’ve been. What goes around, comes around, right?

They didn’t take long to know that the love they shared was already there. They knew it, I knew it and our parents knew it. This was meant to be! Boy and girl fall in love, get married and lived life making every day count. John and Bebe both fell in love with each other’s children and that completed their lives.

John’s passing came exactly one month after our mother’s death and 14 weeks after our dad’s death. John went in to cardiac arrest and the precious minutes that passed that the EMT’s were unable to resuscitate him caused permanent damage to his brain. On Thanksgiving Day, he was surrounded by his wife Bebe, her son Gilbert and his fiancé Heather, Mary Jane (Bebe’s mom), my husband Aaron, our children Zach and Lily and me. We sent John off to Heaven with so much love………….

John was about hugs, hope and happy endings as Bebe so perfectly stated. As my cousin Bryan said, “John would move aside my hand and go for a hug”……….that was so true. John gave everyone a hug, ALWAYS. He was a big teddy bear. He loved to smile and he wanted everyone else to do the same. John had his own way of doing things. He was never in a hurry, never wanted to rush anything. He learned to live “in the moment” at rehab and spent the last 7 years doing just that. He took each day as a blessing and just lived it the way he felt that day. His way………..John’s way. You went at your own pace…. what worked for you and Bebe. It wasn’t always what the rest of your family hoped for but it was YOUR way of living life…….trying to be happy, trying to make others happy and enjoying the moment for what is was……a blessing. You never complained but always dealt with life’s obstacles. You never blamed others for anything, a trait mom and dad taught you well. I’m so proud of you and I’m so sad I didn’t tell you that as often as I should have. Mom and dad were proud of you too but you really know that now, don’t you?

You ARE SO LOVED big brother!. You will be missed like no other, John. You have a responsibility to watch over so many of us. With wings so big, each breeze will remind us of you. Rest in peace sweet brother, son, grandson, cousin, nephew, husband, father, uncle and most importantly, everyone’s friend. You touched so many lives and though some friendships weren’t recognized on a daily basis, they are there and will forever have meaning

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from five o’clock in the afternoon until seven o’clock in the evening on Saturday, the 5th of December, in the library and grand foyer of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.

A funeral service will be conducted at two o’clock in the afternoon on Sunday, the 6th of December, in the Chapel of River Oaks Baptist Church, 2300 Willowick Road in Houston, where Pastor Martus Miley is to officiate.