"This year would have been the 70th birthday year for John if only he was here. But people are not questioning if he is here or not. They just love him and are keeping him alive with their love. I’ve received notes from all corners of the world to let me know that they were celebrating this year to thank John for having given us so much in his forty short years on earth.
The most important gift we received from him was not words, but deeds. He believed in Truth, and had dared to speak up. We all knew that he upset certain powerful people with it. But that was John. He couldn’t have been in any other way. If he were here now, I think he would have shouted so we can all hear it. That truth was important. Because without knowing all the truth of what we did, we could not achieve world peace.
On this day, the day he was assassinated for being a truth seeker and a communicator, what I remember is the night we both cracked up drinking tea.....my memory of us is that we were a couple who laughed."
-- Eulogy from Yoko Ono
December 8, 2010
11:07 tonight, exactly thirty years ago, from an emergency room in a New York hospital, he departed. Like so many others, I remember where I was and how I got the news out on the West Coast: The shrill yet palpably sad voice of Howard Cosell, who made the shocking announcement from his booth in the final minutes of Monday Night Football.
The whole world stopped in that moment. What were we to do?
Like a big part of us had been torn right out. Pain and grief and indescribable loss.
Yet one of those days that followed in that bleak December, weeping as I was driving, a familiar song that Lennon wrote hit a nerve that I'll never, ever forget.
You know the one. About letting go.
Little by little, the grief slowly eased. And the music continued, as it has since that awful night three decades ago. Still, I sure do miss you, John.
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