35 years later, John Lennon's death (and life) echoes
Some losses echo like thunder.
And sometimes that thunder can echo for years, decades.
Four gunshots, that's all it took. The thunder of those shots continues to echo.
A tremendous loss, one felt today just as deeply as it was felt on Dec. 8, 1980.
The night John Lennon died, I was one day shy of being 5 months old. At that age, you have no idea what is going on. You don't know that a man who sang his vocal cords bloody on "Twist and Shout" was no longer with us. You had no clue that the artist who gave us "Strawberry Fields Forever" had passed away. It didn't register that a visionary who urged us to "Imagine" living life in peace had been terribly silenced. There was no concept of loss when a father who wrote songs like "Good Night" and "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)" for his children had been taken away from his family.
But you grow up. And if you're lucky, you grow up in a household like I did, where your parents were fans of the music. I can remember being a very young boy and seeing calendars and photos with The Beatles on them. I remember my dad pointing to each Beatle and telling me their names. I remember him pointing at one and saying, "And this one isn't here anymore. He died. And his friends and family are very sad." And I remember my mom talking about the TV news and the radio and how everyone was singing his songs and talking about his music after he died.
By: Chris Shields
Source: St. Cloud Times
