Peter John McGowan

“We think of you with love today, but that is nothing new. We thought about you yesterday and the day before that too.”

Johnny passed away peacefully at home with his loving family by his side on 15th August, aged 72 years.

The beloved husband of Hazel, loving dad of Jason and Christine. Also a cherished grandad, great grandad and brother who will be sadly missed but lovingly remembered by all his family and friends.

Johnny lived a happy fulfilled life, and lived it pretty well according to his own rules. But those rules were rules which showed he cared about others, especially his family, and that he cared for animals, especially those horses.

We celebrate 49+ years of happy marriage to Hazel, his faithful loving wife, who, by the way, has faced her own health challenges. She bore him two children – Jason and Christine, and they in turn have given him 8 grandchildren and even made him and Hazel great-grandparents of babe-in-arms Ava-Grace! Hazel has been there for him as his health has deteriorated, proving just how faithful and loving wife she was. I know other family members have rallied round. To them all he says THANKYOU.

These last 5 years have restricted Johnny’s mobility, and there is no doubt that his passing was premature. But we can be grateful that he had not been in excessive pain, and that he died at home, as he would have wished, surrounded by family love, having held in his arms infant Ava-grace. That family will be missing him like crazy! And to each one of them we all extend our deep sympathies.

Many of you will know that Johnny was a proud Dabber born in Nantwich. He was the only boy, the other five children were all girls. You will know that he moved around a bit, but only in the local area. That he was clever at earning his way in life. That he loved horses.

He actually moved the family from Crewe to Alsager about 20 years ago to be near his beloved horses. He understood their temperaments, and they knew he was someone they could trust. To him they were like overgrown pets. One horse pinched his wallet out of his hand and galloped off with it. But here’s the happy ending: he got it back and the horse hadn’t spent the money.

Here was a man with green fingers. Some of you might have shared in the harvest from the garden, especially if you were a family member. Strawberries, Potatoes, Tomatoes, Runner beans, Lettuce, onions – you name it and he probably grew it, and you may well have eaten it!

If you didn’t already know, you can tell that Johnny was a lover of the great outdoors. Gardening, communing with the horses, have already been mentioned. Then there was fishing, driving about collecting metal – even climbing on a roof to fix a TV aerial to do someone a favour. At one time he used to do roofing for a living. That’s outdoors.

He leaves you all happy cheerful memories, and that is the way he would want to be remembered.

He leaves his legacy in his children and the generations that are growing up and to come. He leaves Jason and Christine warm memories of a loving father and the model for loving family life. Jason, for example, would go fishing with his dad, and come with him on the wagon collecting metal, even into adult life. Christine was Johnny’s little darling daughter, and she in turn and to her credit has relocated with Ian her husband and her children to Crewe from Blackburn to be near her parents.

In her you can see  something of Johnny – his cheerfulness and that love of the outdoors, for example.

Johnny didn’t only love his own children. He liked all children and they liked him. He would for example join local kids in a game of football in the street. They called him Popeye – I guess because of his muscles. Maybe he had been growing and eating a lot of spinach.

But there are plenty of grown-ups, nor just the kids, who remember Johnny with massive affection. These last 5 years  of challenged mobility have brought many of these folk to visit him, and I’m sure he really appreciated that and would want me to say THANK YOU.

We started off by saying that Johnny lived life according to his rules. Let’s say that his life brought fulfilment and contentment. He appreciated what the world in all its riches – including of course the riches of people and relationships and family – offered him. He had gratitude in his heart and gratitude to a Creator.

Here is a great way to end these words of tribute. Shortly before he died he told his family he had seen his mother, who had passed away years before. He had a vision of a future reunion in the heavenly places. That is where he is now and that is where those of you who love him will see him again. Maybe he will be communing now with some heavenly horses.

A service to celebrate Johnny’s life will take place at Crewe crematorium on Friday 26th August at 10.45pm.

Please call our funeral home on 01270 584447 for more details.