John Myers embraces life

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He’s known as “John the Englishman” by frequenters of Starbucks. But behind John Myers’ British accent lies curiosity, intelligence, skill, creativity, humor and above all, gratitude for a second chance at what by any measure is a life well lived.

Born in the mining community of Cannock in the British Midlands, Myers grew up in a home that had no running water and no central heat. “We had an outdoor toilet, a pump in the kitchen and one fireplace,” he recalls. “My father was a do-it-yourselfer who loved woodworking. He’d buy old wood with nails in it, and my job was to straighten the nails and help him with building projects. Both my parents had tough upbringings, so frugality was a way of life.”

John Myers of North Granby holds Hobo, the homeless Maine coon cat who purred his way into Myers’ heart after he lost his beloved golden Cocker spaniel Rocky. Courtesy photo

At school, Myers’ favorite teacher was Andy Morton who taught woodworking. “In high school I built boxes and lamps, and I followed my father around with a hammer when he was building fences, learning both skills and ethics,” Myers says.

Always the shortest boy in his class (he is now just short of six feet tall), Myers found ways to compensate. “I developed a sense of humor based on wry self-deprecation,” he says. That sense of humor has lasted a lifetime and is sprinkled throughout the two books he has self-published.

Myers excelled at woodworking and at tennis, which he continues to play today. He taught himself to play golf with borrowed clubs, a game he has perfected over some 60 years.

After graduating from Wolverhampton Polytechnic and a short time working in Southwestern England, Myers landed a job with IBM in Birmingham. “In 1976, IBM moved me to London because I was a really good systems engineer,” he says. In 1984, he was transferred to New York City, but that office was closed a year later. “They told me I could go back to England or stay in America. I stayed and got a job with Vantage Computer Systems in Wethersfield. It’s where I met my wife, Beth.”

The couple lived in Newington, but after buying a lake house in Tinmouth, Vt., the weekend commute became tedious, so they started looking at houses closer to Vermont. They have been in Granby for 25 years.

At 76, having survived two heart attacks and quadruple bypass heart surgery, Myers is still going strong. He cooks all the couple’s meals (Beth is on clean-up duty). He built a wooden mantle and surround for his living room fireplace. He replaced the large deck floor. He plays drums and guitar. He is working on a third book. And he still writes poetry, recently winning first prize in the Mending Hearts poetry contest for a poem dedicated to his rehab nurses.

The Myers do not live alone. Two weeks after their beloved golden Cocker spaniel Rocky died in 2009, Myers and Beth arrived one Friday night at their lake house to find a young Maine coon cat sitting on their front steps. Never a cat lover, Myers brought the stray to a feline-loving friend across the lake. When he returned the following Friday, there sat the cat, waiting. When this happened again, Myers got the message. He believes that Rocky sent the cat he named Hobo to ease his grief and keep him company. And that Hobo continues to do. Hobo will be memorialized in Myer’s work-in-progress about the life of a cat who chose and trained his owner.

For Christmas, Myers bought himself a pale blue Volvo XC40. So, if you don’t hear a British accent at Starbucks, wave when you see “John the Englishman” driving around town in his shiny new car.