Old Blog- Yoko

December 8, 2005 - Yoko's flower.. Was inside my apartment today on UWS, working from home, emailing, etc. At about 3:15 I decided I needed to get out and get some air, run some errands. Dropped off some shoes for repair, deposited a check at the bank, then realized it was the anniversary of John Lennon's assassination. Since I live near the Dakota, I decided to walk over and see if anything was going on. At the Dakota, the police had held people back from the front entrance with barricades. Already there were 40 or so people gathered, including many press and photogs. I walked out in the middle of 72nd street to get past them and decided to walk to the Imagine memorial to see what was going on there. As I entered the park I saw there were a couple hundred people surrounding the memorial along with press, cameramen everywhere. News trucks lined CPW. Not wanting to deal with the crowds, I chose to keep my distance and climb atop of the one of the park benches just inside the entrance. Just then there was a commotion across the street at the Dakota. Suddenly a large group of police and suits were walking in my direction with press running along side them. In the midst of this frenzy was little Yoko, being escorted and protected. She wore a black 70's style cap, a black winter coat, and sunglasses. As her security kept a perimeter on the far side of her, she walked just past me, close enough for me to reach out if I wanted. Close enough to see her melancholy eyes behind her dark shades. With two hands she softly protected a white flower as she made her way toward the memorial. People were respectful. Very few shouts of "Yoko". Her group disappeared for a few moments into the masses surrounding the memorial. Within a minute she was back walking past me, staring down to the ground, not acknowledging much around her, as her escorts cleared the way. Then she disappeared back into the Dakota.