Thursday, September 26, 2013

42. John


My grandfather died the day before Lennon was shot.  I was a freshman in college and just turned 18.  Never lost someone that close before.  I was numb.  I was hundreds of miles away from home and family, and I was wrapped up in my insulated, selfish, teenage life and I didn’t know how to feel.  I wasn’t sad, I didn’t cry, it all seemed far away.

John was shot the next day.  Chris Lee and I were listening to the news on the radio in his room.  It was unbelievable.  It was too much.  I went to my room and sat on the bed in the dark and cried like a baby.  I couldn’t stop.  After about an hour I got a grip and found my friends and joined the general grieving.  I think a lot of us stopped being kids that day.

The next day I went home for Pop’s funeral.  When I saw my grandmother at the wake it didn’t seem so far away anymore.  And then I cried for Pop too.



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