The end of an era. Thats what the breakup of the Beatles was. The sixties made the Beatles and the Beatles made the sixties. Though each of them were very successful in their own right after they officially broke up on December 31, 1970, all of their success combined couldn't add up to what they had created. They gave the world all that they had, and we admired them for that. They told their stories with their songs. Will they ever reunite? Well, as George Harrison said, "There won't be a Beatles reunion as long as John Lennon remains dead." I agree. We all have the image in our mind of what the Beatles were when they broke up. That image needs to stay in our minds, not the image of three guys in their fifties forced to play with each other on stage, and as one man in his thirties tries to live up to what his deceased father left behind. We need to keep that image of them in our mind, whether its of them on the Ed Sullivan show, in their Sgt. Pepper uniforms, or laughing and smiling in a cornfield. The Beatles together may not exist anymore, but the impact they made and their spirit lives on.

On John's 35th birthday, October 9, 1975, he and Yoko's first child together was born. Since at the time John was fighting for his greencard, their son was originally going to be named George Washington United States Of America Citizen Lennon, but scratched that and decided to call him Sean. Though John was leading an extremely successfull music carreer at this time, it was at that moment that Sean was born, that he decided to give it up. He figured that he was never there for his other son, Julian (whom he had had with his first wife, Cynthia), wasn't much of a father to him, and he DIDN'T want that to happen with Sean. So he stayed home watching, playing, and teaching Sean. His days were consumed of planning out meals for Sean and his nights planning out what he and Sean would do together the next day. John, of course, didn't mind the role-reversal, with him taking care of their home and Sean, and Yoko taking care of business matters. Thats the way he wanted it. For a few years, John lived in almost a perfect world.

When the recording session was over at about 10:30 pm, John and Yoko headed towards their two-mile-away apartment, intending to change clothes and go out for supper. They reached their home and were walking towards the door at about 10:50. Just then, a man, the same man who had asked John for his autograph only six hours before, called from behind the Lennons. "Mr. Lennon?" he shouted. John turned around. Before they could do anything, five bullets were shot into the upper half of John's body. John staggered as far as the doorman's booth, then collapsed, whispering "I'm shot, I'm shot", over and over again. While the distraught Yoko tried to revieve him, the doorman instantly called the police. The man in the shadows who had caused all this remained still, and, with a smirk on his face, was reading a copy of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, his gun on the ground. The doorman kicked the gun off to the side, and asked Chapman, "Do you know what you've just done?" Chapman smiled, "Yes," he said in a whisper, "I just shot John Lennon".

John Lennon was pronounced dead, at age 40, on arrival to Roosevelt Hospital. His killer, Mark David Chapman, a 25-year-old obsessed fan, got life in prison. John has since become more than a legend. Fans of all ages worship him, even if they never took a breath of "John Lennon air". John, the "Man of The Decade' for the 70's, lives in all our souls. John Lennon shines on.