1 month ago
4
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - Friends and household gathered successful remembrance of lifelong Fresno instrumentalist and carnal person John Shafer astatine a solemnisation of beingness connected Saturday, May 24.
Whities' pets manager and prolific Fresno drummer John Shafer passed distant successful March 2025, but friends and household were not rather acceptable to accidental goodbye.
Over the weekend, John's contiguous household organized a solemnisation of beingness astatine Pat Wolk’s backyard plot successful Fresno to springiness friends and extended household a accidental to grant his legacy.
Shafer's daughter, Lindsay Coleman, and her sister, Brooke Russell, hold that their begetter was a talented instrumentalist and a devout carnal person who dedicated his beingness to serving those passions.
"Our begetter has been successful Fresno for astir of his life, helium ran Whitie's Pets each day," Russell said. "Besides that, helium was an astonishing drummer."
Coleman says her begetter adjacent traveled to different countries arsenic a instrumentalist and performed astatine iconic venues astir the world.
"He was with a set called Blake Jones and the Trike Shop," Coleman said. "They got to spell to Liverpool and they played astatine the Cavern Club, which is really wherever the Beatles were discovered."
Coleman says her begetter besides traveled to Fiji and crossed Europe with different bands, but helium ne'er forgot to attraction for his furry friends astatine home.
"He was a canine guy, helium had a immense emotion for animals," Coleman said.
Russell says her father's emotion for animals and radical knew nary bounds; the astir important happening to him was that helium not person designation for his bully deeds, but that the bully deeds get done.
"Whether helium was filling jackets for the stateless with granola bars successful the pouch truthful they'd person thing to devour oregon immoderate helium did, helium didn't privation recognition," Russell said. "He did it selflessly, conscionable purely retired of the emotion of his heart."
Coleman and Russell accidental it was wide to spot that, though their begetter ne'er asked for recognition, his bully deeds and benignant bosom did not spell unnoticed, fixed the outstanding turnout of guests astatine Pat Wolk's backyard garden.
"The outpouring of emotion that everybody's had has been precise emotional," Coleman said. "It's a bigger turnout than I thought - I deliberation it's beauteous and it truly speaks volumes to who helium was."
Though the evening brought tears to the eyes of galore astatine the thought of ne'er seeing John again, his daughters accidental radical were dancing, singing and celebrating - conscionable similar their begetter would person wanted.
"A batch of radical say, you know, you person to hole for decease and hole to spell to the different side," Coleman said. "But my dada wasn't similar that. He was surviving for contiguous and wanted to unrecorded his beingness to the fullest, and helium did."
