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Wife of rock legend Lou Reed, who passed away last month, has written an emotional essay in commemoration of his life.
Musician Anderson who was married to Reed since 2008 has already written an obituary for the local paper the East Hampton Star. Now she has gone on to write a more extensive piece detailing the depths of their relationship all the way up to the eventual death of Reed. It details in emotional prose their first meeting at a John Zorn-curated festival in 1992 all the way to Reed's proposal and meditative techniques that prepared him for death.
The piece that will appear in Novembers issue of Rolling Stone reads:
"Lou and I played music together, became best friends and then soul mates, traveled, listened to and criticized each other’s work, studied things together (butterfly hunting, meditation, kayaking). We made up ridiculous jokes; stopped smoking 20 times; fought; learned to hold our breath underwater; went to Africa; sang opera in elevators; made friends with unlikely people; followed each other on tour when we could; got a sweet piano-playing dog; shared a house that was separate from our own places; protected and loved each other."
In a particularly emotional passage, Anderson talks about the moment that Reed passed away:
"As meditators, we had prepared for this – how to move the energy up from the belly and into the heart and out through the head. I have never seen an expression as full of wonder as Lou’s as he died. His hands were doing the water-flowing 21-form of tai chi. His eyes were wide open. I was holding in my arms the person I loved the most in the world, and talking to him as he died. His heart stopped. He wasn’t afraid. I had gotten to walk with him to the end of the world. Life – so beautiful, painful and dazzling – does not get better than that. And death? I believe that the purpose of death is the release of love."
Anderson is one of many who have paid tribute to Reed since his death, with the Arctic Monkeys, David Bowie and many more pay their respects to the seminal musician.
