The ashes slipped into an element that had energized his life and took his life – the sea.
GAY HEAD, Mass.
IT COULD have been imagination, but you could almost swear the buoy bells tolled louder yesterday between 11:10 am and 11:30 a.m.
It seemed they were specially tolling in the deep ocean off Gay Head for young John John, his beautiful wife, Carolyn, and sister-in-law, Lauren.
We were just four miles southwest of where JohnKennedy Jr. frolicked on the beach as a young man, the place he and Carolyn called their island paradise.
At 11:05 a.m., the warship USS Briscoe dropped anchor, the American flag was hoisted to half-mast on the stern, and the sun peeped through gray clouds.
Directly in front of the Briscoe was the Kennedy mansion. To the right of the warship was “The Grasp,” the high-tech vessel which only 24-hours before had made the grim recovery of three innocents.
As the buoy bells clanged, the ashes of John John would slip from the stern of the Briscoe into an element that had energized his life, took his life, and will forever remain his resting place – the sea.
The morning had started with commands crackling over the Coast Guard radios, and you knew you were in the midst of a big operation.
At 8:50 a.m., the immediate family arrived at the giant warship on a small Coast Guard cutter which took off from Woods Hole.
The mourners wore black; the sailors meeting them wore dress whites.
It would be the last voyage for John John, Carolyn and Lauren, and yet another voyage of despair down a sea lane the Kennedys have sailed so often before. The bulk of the mourners joined the Navy ship 15 minutes later on the 141-foot Coast Guard cutter Sanibel.
At 11:05 a.m., it arrived at its grim rendezvous off the Kennedy mansion and only three miles from where John died.
Soon after, his ashes became part of the wind and the sea he loved so much. There is no question yesterday’s farewell had more than a touch of old fashioned royalty attached to it. After all, he was a prince.
Someone was saying that despite some very obvious differences: “This is just like Princess Di, only it’s on an island.”
There are many legacies that only intimate friends and family could enumerate on their lost loved ones.
Of course, they were rich and famous, but in the end, they were three beautiful kids, regardless of their names. And perhaps that is the most helpful reflection we can all indulge.
And yet, as in the case of Princess Di, the money grubbers are already rubbing their hands together.
Can you imagine the online auction housee-Bay is already busily working?
Already, there have been hundreds of items offered for sale linked to John F. Kennedy Jr., including a signed credit-card slip that had attracted 17 bids, the last one for $635.
Someone also was offering the Internet namecarolynbessette.com for $35,000.
I hope they don’t make a dime.
Without getting too philosophical, you can’t help but reflect on your own mortality on a day like this.
Life goes on, yet you wonder why the Kennedys have been handed so much premature death.
It doesn’t seem fair. And it isn’t.
With that thought, the wind whipped across the sea and John John became part of another world. And suddenly, as we headed back to Woods Hole, the sound of the buoy bells dissipated into the gray of this long day.