By CYNTHIA LENNON C 2005
Crown Publishers New York
Pages 5-6-7 (Chapter One)
"One early December afternoon in 1980 my friend Angie and I were in the little bistro we ran in north Wales, putting up the Christmas decorations. It was a cold dark afternoon, but the atmosphere inside was bright and warm. We'd opened a bottle of wine and were hanging baubles on the tree and festive pictures on the walls. Laughing, we pulled a cracker and the toy inside fell onto the floor. I bent to pick it up and shivered when I saw it was a small plastic gun. It seemed horribly out of place among the tinsel and paper chains...
(Cynthia proceeded to London where she was staying with Mo Starkey, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr's (Starkey) first wife.)
"I was asleep in the spare room when screams woke me. It took me a few seconds to realize that they were Mo's. At that moment she burst into the room: "Cyn, John's been shot. Ringo's on the phone - he wants to talk to you."
"I don't remember getting out of bed and going down the stairs to the phone. But Ringo's words, the sound of his tearful voice crackling over the transatlantic line, is crystal clear." Cyn, I'm so sorry, John's dead."
"The shock engulfed me like a wave. I heard a raw, tearing sob and,. with that strange detachment that sudden shock can trigger, realized I was making the noise. Mo took the phone, said goodbye to Ringo, then put her arms around me. "I'm so sorry, Cyn," she sobbed.
"In my stunned state I had only one clear thought. My son - our son- was at home in bed: I had to get back so that I could tell him about his father's death. he was seventeen and history was repeating itself in a hideous way:both John and I had lost a parent at that age."
