Having dinner and a drink in the bar area (an old 1930's dining car) of a restaurant in 2005 on the anniversary of John Lennon's assassination. Hey Jude came on the station. The woman behind me became emotional during the song's coda.
I mistakenly thought her emotions stemmed from being a Beatles fan. I discovered later in conversation with her that the song bought up memories of her older brother who bought home the single shortly after its release in 68 when he was 15. Her parents disliked the Beatles, in spite of their put downs of the band, her brother convinced them to listen to the song.
She said silence overtook the room after the opening verses and that her parents remained still after the song was over. Her brother lost his life a few short years later during a training exercise while serving stateside in the military.
At that moment, alone in a bar on a cold December evening, hearing that song opened up the floodgates of those memories as if they were recently lived and not from the distant past.
