She Forgot Everything. Except Him. The story of John and Nora

 

She Forgot Everything. Except Him.

"In 1975, inside Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren's infamous boutique SEX on King's Road in London, a young John Lydon walked up to a strikingly beautiful German woman fourteen years his senior and, by his own account, immediately disliked her. 

Nora Forster, publishing heiress, former model, music promoter, and the woman who had already worked with Jimi Hendrix and Yes in Germany before relocating to London, felt exactly the same way about him. 'I didn't even think to be nice to him,' she later said. 'I was at another gig and John passed by my table and said, Drop dead.' They were married by 1979. 

The whole of Britain probably laughed. Here was Public Enemy Number One, the man who had mocked the queen on a record that the BBC banned and the government called a threat to public decency, quietly settling into a committed marriage with an older woman and becoming stepfather to her teenage daughter Ari Up, who would go on to front the Slits, one of the most radical female punk bands who ever existed. 

What nobody outside their circle understood was that John Lydon, underneath the snarl and the chaos and the carefully constructed fury, was a loyalist to his bones. He told The Guardian years later that he had never been unfaithful, not once, despite having every opportunity during the Sex Pistols years. 

When Nora was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in the mid-stages around 2018, he quit everything and became her full-time carer. He refused to put her in a home. He changed her diet against medical advice because he knew her better than any expert. He told a doctor that the real person was still there every minute of every day and that was his life. 

When her condition worsened and she could only communicate in childlike German, he appeared on The Masked Singer as the Jester specifically to make her laugh. He entered Public Image Ltd into Eurovision 2023 with a song called 'Hawaii,' written entirely for her, because he wanted her to hear something beautiful that was only hers. 

She died in April 2023 at eighty years old. He had told The Guardian, years before the end: 'The idea of losing Nora is unbearable. If one of us goes before the other it will be murder for the survivor.' He was right. And he meant every word

. #JohnLydon #NoraForster #PunkHistory #SexPistols #fblifestyle"

Nora Forster and her husband John Lydon

I love this story about John and Nora and it reveals the side of Johnny that not many saw or were too dumb to spot! I have mentioned before he came to Blackwell’s Bookshop in Oxford and by all accounts was a delight , warm friendly and full of fun. The staff working that night ended up adoring him

As I say I like this story . . . . . . .