"Johnno," born Grant Champion Johnson passed away on October 6, 2023, at the age of 46. He is survived by his daughters Isla and Rosie, and partner Kerri, his mother Stephanie and his sister Hannah (both in England) his mother and father in law, John and Bev Jacobs, and sister in law Janelle and Paul Mergl and Brother in law Craig and Deanna Jacobs, along with many beloved nieces and nephews and a treasured Great Grandma Phyllis Wilhelm.
Johnno was born April 20, 1977 in Croydon, SE London England. He loved playing football with his mates. After a year of college and some odd jobs he went travelling around the world for a year. At the end of this year away he met Kerri while backpacking in Thailand, on Ko Samet island. They fell in love! He even came back and travelled with her for 4 months. After living in London England together for a while, they settled in Wellesley ON the following year, and on Dec 6, 2003 they eloped and were married in Niagara Falls, Ontario!
They lived their life with passion, fun, dedication and lots more travel and built a wonderful business, working together side by side, called Vibrant Life Spa. Which they ran for 15 years.
When they welcomed their two beautiful girls into the world he was the proudest daddy! So doting and involved and playful! Johnno sincerely loved being a dad to his two little munchkins.
We continued to travel and had many awesome adventures as a family, Costa Rica, Mexico and Cuba and many camping trips, to just everyday bike rides, swimming at Grandma and Papa's pool, skating on the Wellesley pond, tobogganing, Saturday morning breakfasts at Schmidsville and many walks that we somehow turned into life's little, beautiful adventures as a family….this all culminating into a big move to Summerland BC in 2021.
Johnno was a man of many talents. Juggling, playing any song on his recorder! balancing things on his chin, writing poems, playing guitar and man could he dance!
He loved music so much….his whole life could be traced with a song.
He absolutely loved to play football (soccer) and enjoyed watching the game whole-heartedly. Camping and camp fires were some of his favourite times. And Halloween was one of his favourite days! Although he truly enjoyed any and all celebrations. Doing life with Johnno was a lot of fun!
Hosting and planning many parties was another way he celebrated life, whether it be for our friends, or our daughters birthday parties or a dance the Lion's Club put on! He did it with creativity and passion to make it a fun time for all who attended. And he was usually the life of the party!
Competition ran deep, whether it be on the pitch, tennis, volleyball, badminton or in the many basement games of pool and ping pong.
His successful RMT career built up a following of many loyal patients, who came for the amazing deep massage as well as the conversation!
His creativity evolved into many picture worthy renovation projects. And whenever he could, he would use barn board for that added touch.
He brought many good ideas to life and wasn't afraid of hard work.
The people in Johnno's life were his whole world! His family, his friends and his massage patients all knew they were deeply loved and cared for by his jokes, his stories, his phone calls and the time he spent pouring into those foundational relationships. Even strangers received a friendly smile and a witty conversation.
People in Wellesley will always remember the English bloke shovelling the snow in his shorts, or running over to Pym's in his flip flops in the middle of winter!
His legendary presence was felt in any room he entered, whether it be the events he helped plan as a Wellesley Lion, weddings, birthday parties, there was always the sound of his laughter and his outrageous costumes to put a smile on everyones face. Never one to shy away from the microphone, Johnno had a song in his heart always.
His larger than life presence brought an intense level to all that he did, and his 2 1/2 year battle with bi-polar was sadly no exception.
As his fight is now over, we are all left with the traumatic ache wondering what the hell just happened?
Yet all these pale in comparison to the greatest joy of his life, his two beautiful daughters.
Isla Rainbow and Rosie Sunshine will continue to carry the magical words of their loving parents, "We live our life surrounded by rainbows and sunshine". 🌈☀️🌻🦒
May you rest in peace, dear Johnno. We will never forget you and will honour and remember all the fun and magic you brought into our lives and this world!!
There will be a ceremony to honour Johnno in Wellesley, Ontario, where we spent most of our life together. This is being led by Isla and Rosie's vision💖. It will be at Uncle Dave's church where we used to go❤️

Receiving line and Ceremony for Johnno

When: Friday Jan. 5th, 2024
Where: St. Mark's Church,
1123 Henry St. Wellesley, ON N0B 2T0
Time: Receiving Line - 10:30am - 12:30pm Ceremony - 2:30pm