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....
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