A Eulogy for my Mother, Rosemary Johnson
As many of you know my mom was murdered recently by my younger brother Devin Johnson. Police have since revealed in court that he stabbed her over 100 times, bought a plane ticket to Costa Rica after the murder attempting to flee the country, and at some point around the crime purchased bleach and paper towels at a nearby grocery store.
The past two weeks have been hell, and while the memorial service on Friday went well, the funeral services on Saturday were a complete disaster.
The screenshots below are of my younger sister Renee getting escorted out of a Roman Catholic church by two Cape Coral police officers, after getting verbally and physically aggressive against my wife Allyssa, and even our baby daughter caught in the madness.
I will publish the video here later this week.
St. Andrews church - the church of my childhood - had approved my reading of the eulogy you will see below, in addition to my older sister reading an obituary she had written. These are “pre-mass” readings before the priests arrive and begin the religious component of the service.
Renee was freaking out about me reading any eulogy at all at our mother’s funeral mass - even with the church’s approval - and ultimately had to be escorted out of the building by law enforcement.
After this incident the church cancelled all pre-mass readings.
This behavior continued to escalate throughout the day, nearly resulting in a brawl or small riot at the final burial/entombment in Fort Myers. In the middle of reading this eulogy, that the funeral director had approved me to give in writing, multiple times, Renee began running around the mausoleum where my grandparents (and now mother) are entombed, screaming like a chicken with her head cut off.
Instead of removing the aggressor like CCPD did, Lee County Sheriff Deputies threw me out of the building like an animal - in the middle of reading the eulogy off paper at my mother’s final entombment - without so much as even introducing themselves or asking me anything.
I was about half way done reading without complaint from anyone - a few gentle laughs in the crowd even at the lighter parts - until Renee began screaming and running around like a banshee.
Internal Affairs for the Lee County Sheriff’s office has opened an investigation into their officers conduct. I received minor injures when they threw me through a door without warning. The Fort Myers Police Department has filed an incident report, and CCPD has filed a police report for the church incident. They are reviewing the video I filmed of the entire thing and interviewing the officers.
At my own mother’s funeral/final burial, I was silenced, censored, abused, injured, and defamed while reading a eulogy for my mother. To say that I am disgusted and pissed off is a profound understatement. I have been on the phone with law enforcement and attorneys non-stop since Sunday.
However without further ado… here is the eulogy that was banned at my mother’s funeral, and got me thrown through a door like a piece of trash.
As you will see it was intended to be read at St. Andrews church where the initial incident with law enforcement happened.
Eulogy for my Mother, Rosemary Johnson
My mother was a sweet and gentle woman. She took me to this church many times in my childhood. In fact I could joke that I grew up in the parking lot outside - between picking my sister up from school here, attending my own CCD classes, the annual carnival events, my own baptism, first communion, and confirmation in this very church, and attending mass here many hundreds of times with my mom.
It was right there in that room as a young boy that I often fell asleep on her lap. I remember it like it was yesterday, as one of the few places I truly felt safe growing up. I was a rambunctious child for my mother in my early years. I loved going shopping to department stores with her as a boy. It was fun for me to scope out each store for the best places to hide, and the best ways to cause mischief and mayhem. I heard my name on the store intercom systems many times with my mother frantically trying to find me, worried sick about me.
I believe she will get the last laugh from heaven now as my own daughter follows in my footsteps with my wife and I.
My mom was an excellent cook for us, she loved calling me her “cookie monster”. My favorite food was her special quiche, it was even better than my wife’s version now, a close second. I always struggled to get my mom to burn it enough however, an eternal battle that continues on with my wife now to my great dismay.
To honor my mother’s life I believe it is paramount to tell the whole truth of her life right here in Cape Coral Florida. She was in fact a battered wife for over 40 years, beginning before my own birth. These basic facts are not in dispute and are available to review in the public records of Lee County.
She suffered in silence from domestic violence by father’s hands for nearly half a century, as did my brother and I. She suffered until nearly the day he died in 2023 under a restraining order set by the courts of Lee County.
In the end, domestic violence took her very life.
She was ashamed of these issues, and very few in this room knew the truth during her life. My grandma knew, my uncle Johnny knew, my aunt Barbie knew, and very few others. They tried to stop him and help her, but to no avail. The same is true of law enforcement from time to time.
There is much more to my mother’s life than these events, yet both my mother’s life and death were a tragedy of profound degree. I weep for the pain my mother suffered at the hand of my father and brother both.
My mother and I had a rocky relationship for much of my life in adulthood, centering on these issues. I am deeply grateful to the extensive efforts of both my wife Allyssa and older sister Maria in advocating that I repair and restore this relationship over recent years, particularly for the sake of my daughter. Without their efforts my soul would be crushed to ashes right now, beyond repair.
I regret many things I said to my mom in arguing about these issues of domestic violence. I share the truth now due to the gravity of how her life ended, impacting our entire family and local community. She fatally misjudged the danger she was in.
In her life she had compassion for other wives and children suffering these abuses. I believe that due to the totality of events in her life and death, she would want me to speak the truth of these issues plainly and clearly, as would my grandmother.
My mother made many mistakes in her life, as we all do. Some small, some big, some catastrophic. But never once in my life did I witness her commit an act of evil. Her heart was pure as was her love for her children and grandchildren.
I believe now that becoming a grandmother of so many children was one of the greatest joys and proudest moments of her life.
In closing, a quote from the book of Exodus 34:7
I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected— even children in the third and fourth generations.
…
The sins of my father will echo for generations, as they are now in the short time since his death.
With St. Michael as my witness, as a public speaker and advocate, I am declaring total war on the disease of domestic violence. I will fight tooth and nail to destroy this evil until the day I die. No woman, no man, and no child should suffer the way my family has suffered. I will fight until my last breath on this earth to protect my family tree from the evils of my father.
May God have mercy on my father, because I don’t.
Goodbye mom.
I love you and forgive you for the mistakes you made in this life. Please say hello to grandma for me. You are both missed and will never be forgotten.
/s/ Anthony Johnson
After Thoughts
If you were wondering why my younger sister was freaking out about half way into my eulogy, screaming, disturbing the peace in a place of worship (and then a tomb), it is because she has spent several years weaving a social narrative that our father was a great man with “a heart of gold”.
She ran around screaming in a mausoleum LIES, ALL LIES, LIAR over and over at the top of her lungs like a maniac.
It is a big secret essentially that our father beat our mother, brother, and myself for over 40 years total, the entire duration of their marriage, almost until the day he died.
It is sick, disgusting, and evil.
So I spent 5 minutes on the Lee County Clerk of Court looking at his criminal records again, and here are just a handful I found in minutes.
Case closed.
Tell the truth or go fuck yourself.