Everyone's grandpa
Peabody lost a good friend this past week when John Mellott died. He was our all-around good guy. And he was everyone's grandpa. The friends and acquaintances of his three children, nine grandchildren, and 23 great-grandchildren were as attached to him as his own kin. He cheered, whooped, hollered, and carried on as much for all of them at ball games and performances as he did for his own offspring.
I doubt anyone went to more "kid events" or remembered more statistics from past "kid events" than John did. He truly loved watching young people work hard and excel. Not just in sports, but in everything they did.
And I bet I heard a dozen people say that he was someone who had been around so long they all thought he would be with us forever. Every community has a John Mellott. The person who remembers all the stories, knows about everyone's backdoor relations, and can tell about it all with a twinkle in his eye and a chuckle deep in his throat.
And John certainly knew a lot about this community. He probably forgot more stories about Peabody and its populace than most of us have ever heard. I confess I am fond of lingering in the coffee shops and restaurants to listen to the old-timers spin their yarns. John was a good one for stories of Peabody's past.
Still, he often was careful about what he shared.
He once told me about being hired to move graves from a cemetery on the land that now lies beneath Marion Reservoir and the impact it had on him. It was a fascinating account, something I had never considered to be an issue. But it must have happened in many places when the reservoirs were created in the 1960s. After I went to work for Hoch Publishing, I passed his name along to one of our feature writers. I thought his story would be of great interest to the readers of all three of our newspapers.
John thought otherwise and refused to be interviewed about what he did. Of course, he was right. It was not an appropriate tale to recount to a newspaper reporter. While it was an interesting story, John didn't want to offend or hurt the families of those whose remains he had moved. Obviously this was not something that could be told with humor or a chuckle and he chose to protect the work he did.
That story is now gone forever, buried with John just like the original cemetery is buried beneath the reservoir. But that's probably best; some things are better left untold.
I don't think I ever heard anyone mutter an unkind word about John. I expect he wasn't perfect, but he was unquestionably a good man. Perhaps that is the best way any of us can hope to be remembered. It is hard to evaluate emotions and they most certainly are distorted by death
John's family will be bereft of his presence from now until their own lives are complete. They will have a tough go of getting by without him. And so will we all. But we are all richer for having had him amongst us. He was a wonderful man and everyone's grandpa. And he was very good at that indeed.
— SUSAN MARSHALL
