Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
My mother was a quintessential Beatles fan. She was a teenager when the Fab Four
came onto the music scene in the US. She even wore the hairstyle of many of the young,
screaming fans who greeted them. When she passed away in 2011, I just simply had to
honor her at her celebration of life service with their music. “Imagine”, particularly the
lyrics above, immediately came to mind. There was some tension from some family
members about my song choice, especially because of those lyrics, but my cousin
understood. I was simply honoring my mother and our conversations about faith and our
questions.
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will live as one
My mom and I had several conversations about the world and what was going on within
it. It’s so uncanny just how much she understood about the world through television,
and her limited interactions with the people around her late in her life. I tried to help her
out of her isolation by taking her shopping and to the library. She told me once that she
wished she had studied library science instead of teaching. I told her I could see her
doing that. It saddens me that her imaginings for her life were muted because of her
health. I have since experienced this in my own life. However, I am giving myself the gift
of connection like I tried to do for Mom. Life may not have ended up like either of us
imagined for ourselves, but we had each other. My experiences have taught me that
connections are what make life worth living.
~Jen Garrison
