Beach Nov 2016

The Bisignano family, from left, Jonathan, Angela, Gerard, and David.
Photo courtesy the Bisignano family
was something quite more. He looked me in the
eye and shook my hand.”
Thus began a friendship that would have all the
usual “shenanigans,” as Savar said, that teenage
boys get up to together — the sports, misadventures,
girl chasing, and epic hangouts of the
bumpy, exuberant years of high school.
But comradery with Jonathan had another
level. He was somebody who found deeper ways
to connect, both with friends and family and the
world at large.
“We would talk about God, family, our community,
our country, what it all means, and what our
place is in it,” Savar said.
“We’d have conversations about metaphysics
and the newest information on consciousness research
all the way, basically, to what happens
after you die,” Riley said. “That was something
he researched, especially after high school. He
was always exploring.”
He played some football early in high school,
but then grabbed hold of the idea that the school
needed a rugby team. So he put one together with
his friends.
“He didn't just play football, he had to play
rugby, with no pads,” his mother, Angela, said.
“He couldn't just run and do hurdles, no, he had
to be the pole vaulter — like he would always be
going for the thing that would make me be on my
knees praying, ‘Oh Lord what is he doing now?’”
Jonathan also had an ability to learn on the fly,
and to do so with an almost maddening ease.
“He picked up rugby really quickly,” Riley said.
“He was a smaller guy, but he was tough. He really
got into rugby. He was 5’7’’, a buck thirty,
maybe forty. But he was an animal.”
“He was very hands on,” Riley said. “Back
when we met, it was skateboarding, then he got
into the surfing thing, playing piano, playing guitar.
He didn’t even let a lot of people know he
played piano, I think he was a little embarrassed...And
he was weirdly good at everything
he tried.”
Jonathan was an exceptional student. He
dreamt of going to USC, and lived that dream. In
college, he met the girl of his dreams, a beautiful
doe-eyed journalism student named Casey
Tamkin, with whom he began to plan a life beyond
college. Last spring, he was preparing to
graduate with a degree in international relations
and economics and pursue a career in investment
banking. With typical, methodical avidness, he’d
applied with 100 firms, and was advancing in the
multilevel hiring process that the highest level financial
firms require. Instead of doing the usual
fraternity brother spring break to Cabo, he flew
with a friend to Japan simply to better know how
that corner of the world worked.
His parents noticed that after his return he was
experiencing unusual weariness, beyond normal
jet lag. But he kept charging: a weekend in Vegas
with his fraternity brothers, then a weekend in
the desert with his girlfriend at the Coachella
music festival. The couple drove back together
Monday morning, April 18, and made plans to
meet for dinner that night.
He then went to his apartment and took a nap
from which he never woke up.
At the time of his passing, at the age of 22, the
circumstances — a college kid who’d been at a
music festival — led to a widespread assumption
he’d experienced an overdose. The USC Daily
Trojan reported “accidental overdose” as the
likely cause of death. Initially, due to the news
report, his father accepted the assumption, despite
the fact that it seemed entirely out of character
for Jonathan and no drugs were found near
his son.
“He went to Coachella, it ended on Sunday and
he partied all night long like kids do, into the next
days, probably took something somewhere along
the way he shouldn't have, he wasn't sure how
powerful it was, whatever, and then finally made
it home after maybe 48 hours up and just faded,”
Gerard said. “That was the assumption.”
But the truth was he'd done nothing of the
kind. He and Casey left the festival’s final show
and grabbed some food. Far from partying, he’d
dutifully waited an hour-and-a-half in line with
her just so she could have the noodles she
wanted. Afterwards, they went back to their
condo rental for a good night's sleep.
The next night, his heart simply gave out.
“There is just a moment,” his father said later,
“where the number of beats that God has allowed
to you comes to an end.”
His family had a history of congenital heart failure.
Angela’s father experienced four heart attacks
and died of the final one, at the age of 54.
But those who knew Jonathan best saw something
beyond a genetic condition. They saw a
young man who lived as if each day could be his
last, a friend, son, and brother gone far too soon,
but one who left behind lessons in love and living
for those left in the wake of the startlingly beautiful
and bold swath he cut on his way through
this life.
“Jon, you were taken from us far too soon,” his
girlfriend, Casey, said at his memorial, standing
near his casket. “But you taught me that life isn’t
measured by the the breaths we take. It is measured
by what we do with the moments we are
given. In just 22 years, you lived a fuller life than
someone who could have lived to be 100.”
Life love
Jonathan Chase Bisignano was born May 24,
1993.
“Twenty-five hours of labor,” Angela said.
“Jonathan took his sweet time coming out the
birth canal. In hindsight, it was probably a prelude
for coming attractions. Jonathan was determined
to do things his way.”
Jon cont. on page 32
November 10, 2016 • Easy Reader / Beach magazine 31