Monday Dec 5
Jessica's car was cluttered with the detritus of health management care: notebooks, instructions, guides suggesting sources of ways to enhance and express moral and emotional support. After her death the car was cleaned out ... every scrap removed to plastic bins for possible future use. Looking back on the car a single sheet of paper inexplicably floated around: it had Jessica's handwritten lyrics to "IMAGINE:"
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Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
The song was sung by the choir at her memorial service.
FROM JESSICA LESTER: I just listened to "Imagine" in her honor. I haven't stopped thinking about her since the moment I received your email. My parent have both shed tears and we all wish we could be there and as my mom said, "just hold you or do whatever might be helpful." I remember Jessica telling me one late night in your basement about her desires and thoughts about how to address poverty - the systemic issues that sustained it, the ways that small yet meaningful steps could be made to move toward eradication. She was just getting started and we can, must, should live with her knowing, her drive and perspective at the fore - there is much she is still teaching me. Her lessons are the kind of lessons that take years to unpack. Forever in my heart, my imagined community.
Love, peace, prayers....
HALEY JESSICA ELISE GREENBERG
AUGUST 18, 1979 -- NOVEMBER 30 -2011
THE DAY THE BALLOON LET GO: Lisa and Katie watched the LifeStar helicopter leave UT Medical Center in Knoxville Wednesday afternoon for the only option left to save Jessica’s life after accidental poisoning – a liver transplant at Vanderbilt in Nashville. Her heart stopped forever en route.
After Lisa talked to Katie about Aunt Jessica suddenly leaving us and death, Katie wanted to send her a message in the sky … they went to the park and let a purple balloon go and watched (a long time) until it was out of sight. "WE LOVE YOU" they called as at faded into in imperceptible dot.
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JESSICA's STAR: The day the balloon disappeared from sight, a star (Ursa Major RA14h 5m 2s D49o22'59.48") was renamed, HALEY JESSICA ELISE, at the Star Registry.
A devoted and beloved daughter, friend, and companion … Jessica passed away Wednesday, November 30 at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville. Her big beautiful heart stopped shortly after she had arrived by LifeStar helicopter from Knoxville where she had been admitted after an accidental overdose of Tylenol.
Kathy & I have been struggling to cope with these overwhelming events. Tuesday night the 29th Jess was brought to St Mary’s ER when her breathing sounded strained and her boyfriend couldn’t rouse her from sleep. He called us when she was moved to ICU & we joined her there. She was in coma and organs were failing … a few hours later she was in a LifeStar helicopter to Nashville to get a liver transplant, but we heard while we were on the road to meet her there that her heart stopped. They said “come to Nashville anyway.” We visited her in the room in which she would have been recovering from the liver transplant. Kathy spoke to the doctor just outside … I stared a very long time at her now peaceful face – I imagined her smiling or winking. It was scary and wonderful.
We know now we had done everything possible to be sure that it was that part of the universe beyond our control that would finish the dance with her.
She was given to the flames, Saturday afternoon, December 3. A star was renamed: “Haley, Jessica, Elise,” at the International Registry. She was almost named Maya (illusion), and loved that idea. (That became her second cat’s name.)
I hope the people she cared about and the things she cherished should somehow know and continue to be nourished by her spirit … that ALL the many, many people and things she loved will prosper … and that YOU will endure and be stronger and stand up for those brighter angels of her spirit where ever you meet them (and they can be unexpected) and see that her beauty and best intentions continue to ripple through the universe. This is now our calling..
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