Sean Burton Obituary, Death – Sean Burton of Ontario has passed away unexpectedly. According to a Facebook post; I was lamenting earlier this week how many of my friends I’ve had to say goodbye to this year, and I realized I’d lost count of how many. The last month and a half has been one of the most difficult for me. Nothing, on the other hand, could have fully prepared me for the phone call I received today. Sean Burton, a Greater Toronto Area citizen, was a personal friend and confidant of mine who shared a variety of interests with me. We had a mutual interest in Formula One racing, football, ice hockey, and the culinary arts.
We first met online in the Football Friends For Life club on MSN Chat almost 20 years ago. I don’t know for sure, but I have a sneaky hunch that he chose the screen name Wit because of his exceptionally dry sense of humor (Sean, do you see what I did there?). I wasn’t sure if he liked me at first, but as time passed — and MSN phased out its chat rooms and groups — we switched to Facebook and became closer friends there. We took friendly potshots at each other on occasion, as American and Canadian friends are inclined to do, but it was all in good fun and no hate was intended.
We enjoyed hearing about one other’s culinary exploits as fellow foodies. I did my best to respond his compliments on my cooking photos whenever he sent them to me, which he did frequently.
Because Sean’s work and sleep schedules were usually erratic, if I knew the outcome of an F1 race and was certain he hadn’t had the chance to watch it, I kept my mouth quiet until he was able to catch up. I was taken aback when I received the phone call you mentioned earlier this morning alerting me that he had passed on to a better place. I am still. It’s still difficult to accept, especially given how regularly such incidents have occurred in the last five years. I have no idea what occurred to Sean that caused him to die, and I’m not going to speculate or speculate. All I can say is that I will miss our chats, whether they were on the phone or online.