I know it's past the anniversary of John's death, but it's Valentine's Day and I've been thinking about him. John was many things, but above all he had a big heart. In the mid 80s John and I were promoting the Goose Bay Air Base in Europe. We spent the weekend in Rome. Wandering along a street filled with other tourists and street vendors I was about 10 paces behind John. I looked ahead and saw a young girl about 10 years old and wearing a sandwich board advertising a restaurant approach John. Her head came up to John's waiste. She pressed the sandwich against John's thigh and pointed at the sandwich board with her left hand. Meanwhile I could see her right hand going into John's pocked. I said "John she has her hand in your pocket". John didn't miss a step. He put his hand down and closed it around her hand inside his pocket. There was a look of absolute terror on the little girl's face. She was looking up into the face of a giant whose pocket she was picking. I'm sure she fully expected her hand to be crushed. John reached into his other pocket and pulled out a bunch of lira, that was befor the euro and lira weren't worth much, and handed them to her while releasing her other hand. When she took the lira John gave her a gentle pat on the head and walked on. The little waif just stood ther with the greatest look of relief and astonishment on her face. That was John.