Justin Raymond Lindberg

Justin Raymond Lindberg was born on January 9, 1982 at Good Samaritan Hospital, San Jose California. He was dedicated to the Lord as a small infant, with family surrounding him in celebration. His grandmother, Rev. Joyce Beck, was a Minister of the Gospel and a missionary to Ghana, Africa. Thus, Justin's spiritual roots run deep. He was so used to seeing people pray in every situation. One day at about age 2, Justin was with his babysitter at her house while she was doing her laundry, when the washer stopped working mid-way through the load. Nothing she could do would get it started again. Justin, sensing frustration and wanting to help, toddled over to the washer, laid his hands on it and started to babble-pray in baby talk ending with a strong, "in the name of Jesus!" Immediately the washer started working again. DeAnna, his sitter at the time, was astounded and never forgot how the faith of a 2 year old child could be used to build other's faith, so powerful yet so simple.

When he was little, Justin loved to try to play his dad's computer games, which you had to read off the screen in order to play in those days, so at the age of 3, Justin taught himself to read.

His dad, Ron, had originally been a music major in college, the piano being one of his instruments. Since we still had Ron's antique upright piano, it was decided that Justin would begin piano lessons as soon as possible. His first piano teacher was hesitant at first because of his young age, but she said she would try him out and see how he did, so at age 4 Justin started playing piano, continuing to the age of 16. So, donning a dress shirt, bow tie, pants and stylish suspenders, he played Ghost Busters at his first piano recital at the age of 5 and got a standing ovation, his little feet dangling, unable to reach the floor yet. This would be his first of many, many piano recitals over the years.

Later, Justin went on to play other instruments as well. He played the trumpet, drums and keyboard. He used to mow the next door neighbors lawn in exchange for drum lessons. Unfortunately, his allergies got the best of him, so the lawn mowing stopped, with the lessons stopping shortly thereafter. He continued to play trumpet throughout his school years, performing at school functions and later marching in the high school band.

When Justin was 6, the family moved to Antioch, CA, due to his Father's job location. Ron was also working on his graduate degree evenings after work and Antioch was closer to work and to school than San Jose was.

After moving to Antioch, Justin was enrolled into first grade at Christian Center School in Pittsburg, CA. He was immediately skipped to the second grade, making him the youngest in his classes, but he was able to keep up with them and then some. Later his academics became a source of embarrassment for him and he refused to try to get good grades. He hid his talent. If his parents made a big enough to-do, combined with a bribe or two, his grades could improve in a jiffy!

Justin never seemed to have a lack of friends. When the family moved to Antioch, we had very few neighbors' since we were in a brand new neighborhood and the streets didn't go through yet. Our house sat at the end of the street with few others nearby. Justin, still 6, used to sit on the curb in front of the house and cry tears that he didn't have anybody to play with. There didn't seem to be any kids around that were his age. At about the same time, his mother decided that selling Avon door to door could insure that she would have plenty of time to stay home and spend time with Justin and maybe meet some friends of her own in the neighborhood. It just so happened that her first paying customer happened to have a boy Justin's age. Justin was invited to come over to play with little Scotty Safford. The rest was history and Justin finally had a friend in Antioch! He was elated! After that, there was no stopping him and every weekend turned into an overnighter at our house or someone else's. And the Avon job? Well, that only lasted long enough for Justin and his parents to make new friends. Then Joyce found she had to go out and get a real job!

Justin asked to be water baptized when he was about age 7 so his parents had him baptized. He brought so much joy to his parents, Joyce Anne and Ronald. Being he was an only child, he probably got spoiled some, but he still had his chores and responsibilities to help discipline him. He started helping out with making his own bed and separating and folding laundry before he started school. His mother wanted to insure that he would be independent and able to properly take care of himself someday when he was on his own and hopefully make a good husband.

In the 6th grade, Justin started a new school near home and found that there were several other "Justins" in his classroom, which didn't sit too well with him. That's when his mom came up with the brilliant idea of calling him by his initials "JR" instead of Justin. The selling point to him was that it would be a lot easier and quicker to write his name down on his school papers. That was all it took. Justin became JR from that point on.

While in high school, JR had several odd jobs, working at Pizza Hut, Raley's Supermarket, selling cell phones, etc. He was a good salesman, eventually turning his own parents and other family members on to their first cell phones. Mind you, this is at the tail end of the popular "pagers" of the time!

JR graduated from Deer Valley High School in 1999 and continued to study music for awhile at the local community college. Soon after, he set his sights on writing "beats" and moved to Sacramento to work at a music studio in Sacramento, writing music, producing local music events and concerts. He also produced an album for a very successful Rap artist of the time. But his love for music didn't pay the bills so he also worked at a local record store where he soon amassed a 400-500 plus collection of vinyl albums going back several decades! He also discovered the music industry could be very disappointing in many ways.

Eventually JR moved back to Antioch and went to technical college to become a CMA, and later, Phlebotomist. This eventually landed him working at a Cancer Clinic, treating cancer patients, while sometimes teaching Medical Assisting and Phlebotomy part time at a private college.

He enjoyed working at the Cancer Clinic and LOVED his patients! They, in turn, loved him as well, bringing him gifts and constantly complimenting him. Unfortunately, JR saw a lot of patients pass away far too quickly, due to cancer. One young lady in particular that he had grown very fond of while treating her, succumbed to brain cancer (brain cancer cure is less than 10%). It deeply affected him more than we realized at the time. Only a short time later, his Uncle Raymond also passed from brain cancer after a two year struggle. JR had sold a cell phone awhile back to his Uncle Ray and blamed himself that the cell phone had caused the cancer. The weight on his shoulders was too much for him to bear. This is about the time that JR's life spun out of control.

Not long after these events, JR moved to Oakland where he eventually met Monica Moreno. Their longtime friendship eventually went to another level and they soon became parents to Ellena Anne Lindberg. It was the happiest day of JR's life. He had camped out at the hospital, along with Ellena's two Grandmothers, to help Monica get through her 68.5 hour labor with his daughter. We all rejoiced when she finally appeared, healthy and beautiful! He was such a proud daddy and hands on from the very beginning! Ellena brought much joy into his life, as well as all of ours. She brought two little families together and is now starting a whole new legacy in her own right. Dada was her first word. At 17 months she points to pictures of JR calling him Daddy without any prompting. She loved her Daddy very much, as did we all and always will.

Justin Raymond Lindberg passed on July 21, 2017. He is survived by his parents, Ronald Dee Lindberg and Joyce Anne Lindberg, his daughter Ellena Anne Lindberg and her mother Monica Leigh Moreno, his grandmother Rev. Joyce Beck and numerous Aunts, Uncles and Cousins.

In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to:
https://www.youcaring.com/ellenalindberg-887399