Jordan Mcglashen

Jordan Andrew McGlashen
May 7, 1981 – May 7, 2020

Family learned of the death of Jordan Andrew McGlashen of Ypsilanti, formerly of Battle Creek, on May 7, 2020 – Jordan's 39th birthday. He died at home.

"He died at home" is an interesting phrase. It's used often in obituaries. In Jordan's case, it's true, but it doesn't tell the whole truth.

This obituary describes a life tragically cut short. To understand the tragedy's full depth, the reader needs the truth: it was a drug overdose. For two decades, he waged a valiant and excruciating cyclical battle with depression and addiction. Otherwise, we might all be reading his obituary decades from now in Rolling Stone.

A passionate heart which often served to encourage others to see within and believe in themselves – though he was incapable of doing the same in himself – no longer beats. The blood that coursed through Jordan's veins mixed with music and a borderline-genius talent for it* no longer flows. His hands will never again deploy the extraordinary skill that commanded guitar strings and piano keys as they did when he blew the roof off of high school pops concerts with Tonic and Kenny Wayne Sheppard Band covers. His ears will never again explore the rich complexities of jazz and classical. His voice, which earned multiple best soloist awards at show choir competitions across the Midwest and would produce screams from adoring female fans that could be heard in Canada, is now silent.

(*Author's Note: If you think that's family hype, please paste this link into your browser and consider that it was recorded by pressing a button at 4 AM: https://tinyurl.com/yajsu76s)

Jordan was born in Battle Creek to John and Patricia McGlashen. His talent was evident at an early age when he sang in the St. Joseph Catholic Elementary School choir. He was invited to join the Battle Creek Boys Choir and was elected head chorister.

He was also one scrappy, competitive athlete. He was known for his exceptional speed as a baseball and hockey player growing up, and he joined his junior high football and wrestling teams. Jordan showed himself to be as powerful a wrestler as he was a performer and competed in individual regional tournaments outside of his participation on his junior high team.

He excelled in music and theater at Lakeview High School. His theater teacher remembered him two decades later as "a marvel and a miracle." His performances were more like explosions. His 5'5, 115 frame seemed incapable of containing the energy and talent within. As part of the Lakeview Spartanaires, he was given solo opportunities such as his award-winning performance of the Styx classic "Babe" which inspired future Spartanaires to try out for the group. He loved Ben Folds Five to whom Jordan turned on many other new fans in high school. Radiohead front man, Thom Yorke, was Jordan's favorite songwriter.

However, high school wasn't easy for Jordan. He failed to graduate.* But he was recruited for a performing opportunity at Cedar Point for which he left school early and worked multiple summers. Jordan worked in the dance competition industry for a time, but as his depression and addiction took hold, Jordan would work many jobs which he'd have difficulty maintaining. At the peak of his latest cycle, he had gone back to school and was working toward a degree.

(*Author's note: Jordan possessed a humble courage that led him to later obtain his GED).

Jordan leaves behind a daughter, Lillian, whose beauty and spirit reveal the careful workmanship of God. If and when she ever reads this, she should know that Jordan deeply longed to make things right.

Jordan is also survived by his mother, Patricia McGlashen (Scott Lee) of Battle Creek, his step-mother Donna McGlashen of Marshall, brothers Brandon "B.J." (Rachel) of Ann Arbor and Collin (Nicole) of El Cajon, CA, sister Kaitlin Zanier (Michael) of Canton, and as-close-to-a-brother-as-possible Rick Spells (Heather) of Newport, RI. Jordan's siblings were in awe of his talent, and his death has crushed them. Nieces and nephews Kellen, Eleanor, Virginia, Yale, Isabelle, Molly, and Emma already miss their very funny Uncle Jordan.

Jordan was preceded in death by his father, John McGlashen, just three months earlier. The two deaths are inextricably linked. John and his wife Donna suffered with Jordan in the valleys and were largely the catalysts and support for his climbs to the happier peaks. Those peaks could last years, during which Jordan and his father hunted and shared many thermoses of coffee.

Jordan had begun a kind of final descent just prior to John's passing, however. On the eve of John's death Jordan thanked him for having never given up on him. One of John's favorite memories of Jordan was during the closing minute of a wrestling match when Jordan had nearly been pinned. John could see Jordan's eyes and knew the exact moment when Jordan decided he was not going to lose the match. Jordan mounted an improbable comeback, pinning his opponent in the final seconds.*

(*Author's note: Unable to see what his father saw within him, Jordan resisted the retelling of this story at his father's bedside on the eve of his passing.)

Jordan recently told his Godmother, Aunt Joanne Ruddock, who survives, that "sometimes I give it all to Jesus at the foot of the Cross. But then I take it back again." Jordan will be cremated and his ashes will rest with his father's at one of their hunting spots.

Healed and whole at last.

Everything in its right place.

(Final author's note: Round-and-round I went – Jordan and I not being that much different after all – worrying whether injecting creativity into Jordan's obituary would cause readers to roll their eyes, think I was performing, or just say the writing is bad. But Jordan told me once that my writing was "profoundly beautiful $@*#." In tribute, I followed the whisper I heard saying "let 'er rip," and revealed what he saw within me. A question for the reader: Is there something within you?)

Arrangements are by Farley Estes Dowdle Funeral Home & Cremation Care, Richland Chapel. Personal messages for the family may be placed here at www.farleyestesdowdle.com.