Update: 23 September 1995
Here's a brief description of the Eugene, OR public wake for Jerry. It was held in Alton Baker Park from 4 til 9 pm on Monday, 14 August.
It began with a cry from the stage saying that we were here to...
Estimates say that a few thousand of us gathered in the late afternoon sunshine to bid farewell to our friend, Jerry.
A stage with several speaker columns and Dead icons sat in the middle of one of the park's grassy areas. Deadheads were able to contribute meaningful items to the altar erected nearby. It already contained items contributed by Mountain Girl. These included several portraits and Jerry's first guitar strap.
Others added ticket stubs from favorite shows, roses and even Milky Way Bars (which Jer probably appreciated :-) )
Family members Ken Babbs, Nikki Scully and Mountain Girl shared their feelings with the crowd. To give you a feeling for the evening, here's a transcription of what Mountain Girl said to us and the poem which Nikki Scully wrote.
"Guess we started this out last week by getting that phone call... and I didn't believe it, cause we'd got phone calls like that before about Jerry, that rumor had it that he had died or passed away or was in a coma or.... It. Y'know it really took awhile to sink in, and I think it's taken until now, for the family to begin to understand what's going on, and my heart goes out to everybody here because we all feel as one at this time and I hope that oneness can continue and go on... we've got each other, that's not so bad (applause).
You know, and bless their hearts, they allowed all that taping... (applause) so that's the miracle of recorded music that we've got in our power.
We set up a little altar at the house on Pigpen's old organ, one of the road organs, and we're putting the pictures up there and we found out later that some of the pictures weren't even of Jerry (laughs), but who can tell (laughs) and I threw, I went to my room to get the I-Ching out, threw the I-Ching and got "before completion, 64th hexagram" which talks about the book of changes as a book of the future, and when we started so long ago we used the I -Ching alot and it kind of fell out of fashion there for awhile, but it sure rang true for me last week...
And then I went, as we were setting up the altar, and I picked up my runes, you know those little runes that come in a bag, they're really nice.
And I got the second rune: Partnership. It's an "x", just a little "x". " A gift. I am your beloved. You are my true companion. We meet in the circle at the rainbow's center, coming together in wholeness, that is the gift of freedom."
And it's the rune that doesn't reverse, because the gift of freedom is that from which flows all other gifts. And I know that Jerry lived in a passionate search for freedom for everybody and it was something so dear to him. We tried with the Rex Foundation to do some good in the war on drugs, and the war on bad laws, you know we need to take that up....(cheers & applause).
Truly, there's still a great need to pursue freedom. And I love you all and appreciate so much that y'all came down today to help me see how shared all this is, and may the sharing go on.
Can we still have picnics and potlucks after this? And play music?
Thank you (cheers & applause).
Death shatters illusion like splintered glass
into a thousand endings, and a thousand beginnings.
Where do we go from here
Our tears glisten on the web of life like mourning dew
caught in the last rays of an era.
Hail to the setting sun
The dance is not over
it's only just begun.
For as the phoenix dances on his pyre
his flesh consumed in the unbearable heat of transformation
sparks fly filling the darkness with a bright shower of stars
mocking the emptiness.
Each of us who has been touched
is gifted with the seed of the next generation of beauty and joy,
the legacy of our beloved Jerry.
It's up to me
and it's up to you.
The rest of the evening, Downtown Deb (host of the local Dead Air show on PBS KLCC) played Dead tunes through a soundsystem that made it feel like Jerry had been resurrected. It sounded as if the band were actually onstage.
It looked that way, too.
Everyone danced while facing an eerily vacant stage. The beatific smiles that we came to take for granted after all these years beamed all around us. As various songs reached their crescendo, everyone up front pressed closer to the 'stage'.
Finally the permit ran out and the enormity and finality of Wednesday, August 9th started to truly sink in.
Nobody wanted the ride to end. But it had to. Downtown Deb, who attended Jerry's funeral just a few short days before, urged us to finish the night the way it was done down in California...
With one final standing ovation.
And then it was done.
Jerry, we loved you. How much, you'll never know. Thank you for a real good time.
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