John Tristao and son Ty. (Photo from GoFundMe)
This one hits close to home.
John Tristao is one of the most talented guys I have ever known, and yet, even after he hit the big time (again), he always remained exactly the same.
The cat is cool, and he was cool when he was working for the Coupeville School District and when he was fronting for Creedence Clearwater Revisited.
Not being at the heart of the town’s gossip anymore, with Videoville being gone, I hadn’t heard about John’s health issues.
I didn’t know he had suffered a near-catastrophic incident in which his aortic valve tore “from the top of his heart all the way into the kidneys.”
I didn’t know he had an aortic aneurysm dissection, and that doctors barely saved his life.
My father, who worked nearly every day of his life, died suddenly, from an aortic dissection.
He was working one day, in the hospital later that day, and gone the next morning.
John Ritter died the same way.
Aortic dissections are hard to catch, and if you don’t know what you’re facing, almost impossible to stop.
The doctors were able to save John Tristao, and for that, I am deeply happy.
But now, finding out about his health problems, and how they have affected his family — all people I have known for years — I want to do whatever I can to help them.
John’s wife, Beth, is one of the hardest-working, light-up-your-life people I have been blessed to know.
She and her dad Leo painted the “new” Videoville (the building that is now Harada Psychical Therapy), and her spirit is truly contagious.
Their son Ty grew up, as many Coupeville kids did, in the aisles of the store, and his cousin, Emma Puharic, was one of my favorite co-workers when I was at Christopher’s on Whidbey in recent years.
With John unable to work, and with extensive hospital bills, the Tristaos could use all the help possible right now.
As we all know, I have little to no money myself, but I do have this blog, which reaches an ever-increasing readership, so I’m using it to help put the word out.
To find out much more about John’s situation, and possibly help him out, pop over to the GoFundMe page set up by friends of the family:
