How I heard the news: On April 1, 2015, I woke up late morning (like at 10 AM or so) and, as I do pretty much every morning, I check on the Beatles' Wives & Girls Facebook page. It was the day to change the header and profile picture to Linda McCartney as she had passed away in April. Usually April was Linda's tribute month. Facebook was done. Then off to Instagram for Beatles' Wives & Girls I went to do Picture of the Day featuring, once again, Linda but as a goofy funny picture as it was April Fool's Day. I saw Julian's picture of Cynthia with candles and I thought 'Oh how sweet!', never did I thought that it was In Memory kind of pictures until I saw a comment about her being dead. Wait a minute....I had already posted the Linda goofy picture up and.... I checked twitter and typed in Cynthia's name in the search. I had hoped that the Cynthia Lennon is dead thing was a horrible April Fool's joke, that maybe, just maybe, something was going on. Sure enough, I saw Cynthia's death announcement. The final reality was Julian's memorial page he had set up for his mother. I was just shocked. Immediately, while my hands started to shake, I went back to the Beatles' Wives & Girls social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) to change everything from Linda to Cynthia. Apparently, Cynthia had died that morning after a short battle with cancer. Just exactly one week before her only son's birthday. Ouch. Also she died on the same day as John Lennon's dad Alfred too. But it's Julian's birthday without his mother for the first time that made it really sad.
I suppose it's not exactly a big secret that Cynthia Lennon was and still very much is my favorite Beatle wife. Even though I don't exactly have a site that's 100% dedicated to her as I do for Olivia Harrison and Isabel Gillies (not a Beatles' wife) but I do have a 50% site of her sharing with Maureen Starkey Tigrett, Cyn & Mo. Also, here on this blog, there's a very very very long essay I wrote about Cynthia's relationship with John. I intended it to be a short paragraph that grew and grew and grew (I will provide the links at the bottom of this blog entry). Don't get me wrong, I love all, well, almost all, the Beatles' wives - except for one and it's not who you may think it is (it's not Heather Mills). I don't know exactly why I am drawn to Cynthia more than the others. I tend to think it's because she's the least known? But she's not really the least known. Cynthia wrote two books about her life with John, she was also an artist, she sang a few songs. However, when you say John Lennon's wife to somebody, they instantly think of Yoko Ono. I would have to say 'no, I mean Julian Lennon's mother' and yet, there's always that one person who thinks that Julian is Yoko's child. Eek! Welcome to my Beatles' family education class! Anyway, unlike John and Yoko's In Your Face love story, John and Cynthia's Love story wasn't In Your Face. It was more like a convenient obligation that John had no choice....ughhhhhhh!!!! But that's the overall thing that most people believe. Unfortunately. Back to Cynthia's tribute. Of course, I am very sad about this. However I hope there's a peace of mind too. There's her parents, one of her best friends Maureen Starkey, her beloved husband Noel Charles. And yes, John Lennon. I hope in the afterlife world, Cynthia cornered John and made her peace that she wanted to do when they were both still living. Not about their failed marriage but over John's treatment on their son Julian.
Just when I finally came to terms of thinking Robin Williams and death going together, now I have to come to terms with Cynthia and death going together and at the moment, it hasn't gelled together. I know she's gone. The reality grew more and more on April 1st when May Pang, Yoko, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and Olivia Harrison released statements in honor of Cynthia. I wouldn't say that Cynthia's death kicked me in the gut like Robin's death did. She was 75 when she died and she hadn't really been making any public appearances since 2013 at Julian's White Feather Foundation gala after her husband's death. I figured something was up but was more so thinking that she's done with the public eye. I also thought that maybe Cynthia would materialized here and there for Julian's big events but far and few in between.
My heart, sympathy, condolences, everything goes out to Julian, her only child. They were really close, they were like two peas in a pod. Now Julian is an orphan. He's the only Beatles' child (at this time of the writing) to have lost two parents. I don't know how this will affect him now. I do believe he will continue doing music and photography but there's his attitude. Life will never be the same for him now as he lost his biggest support system. But then again, perhaps Cynthia's death will have a silver lining too. It's one of those "wait and see" situations.
