John Lennon

John Lennon was all over the TV today - it is 25 years since he was assassinated outside the Dakota Building up on 72nd Street. The Beatles fans are holding their yearly vigil in Central Park and this year Yoko came down to join them.

All very nice… yes, I know that you are all waiting for me to say something cynical but this time I won’t. John Lennon was my version of the Kennedy assassination - you know that idea that you always remember where you were when they were shot.

I was getting ready for school - or to be more precise I was behind the big wooden clothes horse in the kitchen by the heater and sheltered by the laundry, I had one leg through my underpants and was struggling to get the other one through when it came on the radio. My Dad, my Mum and probably one of my Brothers or Sisters were on the other side of the clothes horse having breakfast. There was shocked silence then I asked “Who died?”.

“John Lennon” said my Mum.

I really had no idea who he was, other than a member of the Beatles, a group my brother John liked. I just remember the feeling of shock in the room more than anything else.

18 years later when I step off the plane in New York, one of the first places I visit is Strawberry Fields, the commemorative Gardens in Central Park across from the Dakota.

7 months after arriving I land my first job (it took that long to sort my work permit) through a job agency at The NYC Department of Statistics. I am put in charge of retrieving birth and death certificates from and for hospitals.

The job involves getting a request from a hospital or out-of-state government then running down to the vault to locate it from large boxes sorted by year and then alphabetically. The boxes date right back to the 1920’s, any earlier than that and you send the request to another, even bigger vault in Brooklyn.

It was actually a pretty cool job. It was weird to think that every bit of paper represented a person and inevitably had a story behind it. Some death certificates were detailed and had a corresponding reference number for locating more info, some just simply stated “natural causes” or “accidental death”.

There was one woman who worked in the office whose job it was to scan the newspapers every morning for homicide stories or fire-related death stories, she would then call the doctors or local precincts to make sure the death certificates were lodged with the city.

Another person dealt specifically with infant mortality. Another with HIV/AIDS. Every detail of death and birth was scrutinized.

I worked there for 6 months but part of me wishes I had stayed, it was that interesting.

Anyway, what has this to do with John Lennon? Well, even though it was forbidden, I pulled his death certificate out of morbid curiosity. Celebrity death certificates often had legal shrouds on them to block access to any sordid details the public might not know and they could only be accessed by going through a lawyer first. John was like that - there were no details other than birthdate, place of birth and cause of death. It simply stated “Homicide”.