The Swamp

RIP Shrew.

brian wrote:Yeah no offense HDO but I edited the thread title to make it clearer and to honor Shrew.

Oh, no offense. jhiphop was usually the one with a cycle. And, I could not remember Justin's Swamp name.

His obituary. http://www.thereddingpilot.com/2016/07/ ... -oller-46/

No mention of cause of death. Do any Swampers know what happened? Did anyone know him in real life?

I had met him in real life, but lost touch with him. Last time I saw him was three or four years ago, last time we spoke was over two years. He had depression and a drinking problem. I have no idea how he died.

Little things:

Justin is survived by...nephews Declan Danger Oller, Thomas Jefferson Chiang....

With the spirit of Justin in mind, his family says that “in lieu of flowers, please clean someone’s cat-box, or donate to an animal shelter in Justin’s memory.”

Anyone know the name of the literacy program he volunteered at? Or the town he lived in, so we can make a donation to a local cat shelter?

Shrewsbury MA.

The Sybian wrote:Anyone know the name of the literacy program he volunteered at? Or the town he lived in, so we can make a donation to a local cat shelter?

It was Attleboro, MA -- at least it was last I knew a year or two ago.

Justin had a bad ass middle name too. His family can throw some names.

That obit made me smile. I'm going to clean the cat box now, and think of Shrew.

Sad news. RIP Shrew

The Sybian wrote:Anyone know the name of the literacy program he volunteered at? Or the town he lived in, so we can make a donation to a local cat shelter?

I'm making a small donation in his name, here:
http://faaspets.org/ways-to-help/donate/

Wow, big family. I think I remember him talking very fondly about his late brother Walter Jr. Very sad.

From Facebook, just now:


"Hi,

I'm Albert Oller, one of Justin's brothers. I'm not a Facebooker, so I'm posting this through my wife Beth's account. I have her permission, but the words are mine. Some of you have asked for more information, and that is what I will try to do here.

Justin and I loved each other as siblings, but we were also genuine friends. Like many of you, Justin isolated himself from me over the last few years. We sort of kept in touch, but only on his terms and when he wasn't drunk. Justin was an alcoholic and essentially drank himself to death.

Here is what we know: On Saturday afternoon Justin was found publicly drunk, and escorted back to his room by his apartment manager. The apartment manager said something to the effect of "Let me take you to the hospital, or you are going die if you keep this up." Justin responded with "I'll take my chances". On Tuesday he was found dead in his apartment. The exact cause is not known, and an autopsy was not performed, but there will be a toxicology report.

We are going to have a private family ceremony in Massachusetts. At a later date we may have a plaque placed in memory of Justin and our brother Matthew, at Tower Hill Botanic Garden; they both loved Tower Hill. We'll let you know.

One final anecdote about Justin that you'll probably recognize (with a special shout-out to his friends on sportsfrog): Justin had a fantastic memory, and always had a wealth of trivia at the ready. A few days ago I was just thinking about nothing in particular, and for no reason thought of that big, fat, back-up quarterback who played for the New York Giants. I couldn't remember his name, and I wanted to call Justin because he would know right away, and even the college the QB attended. RIP you lovable jack-ass.

Thank you all for your thoughts."

My father drank himself to death and was found dead in his apartment. I'm in tears now.

I'm going to go clean the cat box.

Thanks for sharing that here HDO.

Some of you may recall that my brother died in January, 2012 in a manner not unlike Shrew, after a lifetime of alcohol and drug abuse. I was pretty bummed out and posted about it. Shrew sent me a long emotional private message, offering his support and advice. I was touched by his spirit of empathy and sympathy.

I didn't know him very well but the one thing I know is he was a kind soul. We were lucky to know him.

Thanks for finding, and posting, that.

Damn, man. Fucking alcoholism. Jesus.

Also, Jared Lorenzen, Kentucky. Pillsbury Throwboy. Now forever linked in my head with Shrew.

Johnnie wrote: Also, Jared Lorenzen, Kentucky. Pillsbury Throwboy. Now forever linked in my head with Shrew.

He'd love that, and the next Swamper adopted cat better be named Shrew.

Man, a sad story. But yet, it's somehow comforting to know what happened.

I wish I knew the guy better. I'd played him a ton of times in WWF and chatted some there, but never really got to know him otherwise. Honestly, I didn't even realize he was Shrew. I can't remember know which Swamper I thought he was - probably Oiler.

Awful news.

And here I was all this time pissed about Oiler kicking my ass at WWF - and it was shrew.

RIP shrew, you will be missed.

That's really sad, but I give the family credit for being upfront about what happened. Those kinds of stories prevent future stories.

Justin came to one of my band's shows in Boston some years back. Quiet and a nice guy. We'd exchanged a few emails from time to time.

dammit.

I've been away for a few weeks, so I haven't had the chance to wish my condolences. This is pretty sad news. As someone who has a loved one with addiction issues, reading about that is the worst case scenario.

Anyway, I got to play a bunch of chess with Shrew back in the day. I was thinking of a way we can honor him, like with do with Unknown with the top league of our fantasy football promo/relegate, and Bensell with the Triple Crown challenge. I looked up on chess.com, and we had a group set up there for swampers. It's been dormant since around 2009. Maybe one of the admins (Dave, NJFlacco, or TT) can change the name of the group to reflect that.

Fuck, I was looking through people who were members, and Bensell was on that group too.

I like the thought of the two of them playing chess against each other online and maybe playing each other again now, depending on your thoughts of the afterlife.

brian wrote:…depending on your thoughts of the afterlife.

Perhaps chess is how they got there



(as for my personal thoughts on the afterlife:)

Uncle Chessy is ready to ride for our fallen frogs.

Full House actually came back is how good that name was

I'm still très pissed at them for stealing DJ Tanner.