Did most of us know John Lennon personally? No. But so many of us had such a personal relationship with his music that his murder affected us as deeply as the death of a beloved family member would.

There's healing in sharing so I invite you to tell your story of where you were, what you were doing, what you thought when you heard the news, or what John Lennon meant to you.

Here's mine: I'd just finished my 6PM to 10PM shift at Westchester rock station WRNW. I was hanging out in the production studio when the Associated Press alarms started to ring. I checked the news wire and saw the bulletin that John Lennon had been shot. I remember being engulfed with that sickening feeling you get when tragedy strikes and instantly pleading with heaven "please don't let him be dead." I went into the studio to tell the jock on the air what happened and it seemed as if only a brief moment passed before the alarm bells went off again with the terrible news that Lennon was dead.

No question John Lennon was a flawed human being (as we all are), but his music spoke to our better selves. He sang of peace, love and truth and used his celebrity and his stature to promote those ideas. He provoked us to think about the world and ourselves in a different way. He was the conscience of our generation and he inspired us to imagine...

December 8, 1980 in New York City: The Day Lennon Died
Binky Philips, Huffington Post
Like at least a few million other Americans, I was watching Monday Night Football on ABC. Frank Gifford had just offered a bit of color commentary on the play that had just been run when Howard Cosell interrupted him...Read more.