Sunday, December 9, 2012

Message from Jude: 1980

I have been posting and reading a lot of what Jude and Jeri wrote in the Harrison Alliance magazines and really enjoying the little stories they had to share about seeing and talking to John and Yoko outside of the Dakota.   I have also been enjoying the "Everyday Lennon" page and facebook site ran by Jeri's daughter.   It is just getting started, but is going to be a wonderful page!   I thought it would be appropriate at this time  to post what Jude and Jeri had to say in the Harrison Alliance (and republished in other places) right after John's death.   I am also posting some photos from the Lennon vigil that was held December 14, 1980.    And that will be the end of this topic for 2012 and back to happier things.





December 29, 1980

Dear Friends of the Harrison Alliance:
Jude and Jeri here.  We sincerely wish to thank everyone for their words of concern to us in the aftermath of John's tragic death and in particular, ask that you all continue in your prayers for the family and for us all who hold him dear.

Please remember that we have lost only a physical form that was John to our eyes and ears.  In reality, the spirit which is and always will be John will go on as long as we do.

To assess the personal impact of John's being and death on our lives is a sheer impossibility because the deepest things always remain locked in one's heart and words, as best, are inadequate.  Jeri and I grieve not for John (for he is in a better place than us all), but for those who didn't know him as we did, because theirs is the greater lose.  And we pray for those who knew him better than we.

We have, because of our Christian belief and because John openly professed to be what in his interpretation was a Christian, not an idea, but a firm conviction that he is in Heaven.  Most all beliefs preach there is an after-life which rewards the good and we feel everyone who was touched by John Lennon shares this conviction with us, respectively in his/her belief.  He was a good man, a lover and seeker of the good and truth in all things and his spirit here on earth, during his time with us, mirrored the teachings of the Lord.  John died suddenly, with virtually no suffering, before he had a gray hair on his head, and most importantly, at what seems to have been the happiest time of his life.  God surely must have loved him to cal him home so soon and at such a time of positiveness.  We sincerely feel that if the Lord was to put in our hands the choice of having John come back in his physical form for another 30-odd years or so, or to be left as is, entrusting with Him for eternity, in our truest, best interest for John it is obvious which we would choose.  John deserves only to be in the best of places.  We hope you who have loved him with us share that feeling.  We can wish that he hadn't been taken from us, yet he wouldn't want us to spend the rest of our lives sorrowfully wishing him back.  What a better, more fitting place for John to be "starting over."

Jeri and I were with John and Yoko on Saturday evening, December 6.  He was, as ever, jolly, jubilant John - tender, affectionate, playful.   His happiness was abounding; on Monday night he died a happy man - a privilege few have had or will have.  We must all be thankful for that much.

The Lord provides that some good comes out of everything.  On Sunday the 14th Jeri and I were able to stand inside the Dakota during the silent vigil, on the inside the vestibule steps were John had fallen.  We prayed together and felt him to be very near to us.  As Yoko told the press, you could feel him smiling down on all of us everywhere, being very brave for him and being very peaceful.  Shot down for his cause, John was a solider of love.  Carry on loving him because your love will still reach him; carry on loving the music because along with his friends, that is the gift he left us.  And most importantly for John, just carry on.  God willing, we will all see him again one day.  He told us this year "We are all part of the sky, moreso than of the ground."  Believe it.

4 comments:

  1. Awww, thanks for taking the time to write that out and post it. I remember those days all too well unfortunately, it's like time stopped, it's the dividing line of life, at least for me.

    For whatever it's worth, revisiting how people were reacting at the end of December 1980, here's an interview Abbie Hoffman gave on pubic access TV the week after the vigil about John:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEBlSsg0Wy0
    mg

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  2. Oh my God, i'm crying as i read this. Thanks for so much love Jude

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  3. lovely piece - remember Jude who was always cordial to other fans waiting to see the lads

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