“We got back together, decided this was our life, that having a baby was important to us and that anything else was subsidiary to that. We worked hard for that child,” John says. “We went through all hell trying to have a baby, through many miscarriages and other problems. He is what they call a love child in truth. Doctors told us we could never have a child. We almost gave up.”

John books a country house where Yoko can rest, and he cancels all their plans.

“Stay alive in ’75. That’s my motto,” he tells an interviewer. “I just feel good now, I’m writing well, so I’m happy.”

John presents his wife with his Los Angeles diary, chronicling all the highs and lows of his separation from her.

He pulls out a book of matches. Strikes one. Touches the lit match to the edges of the paper, sparking a flame. He carries the burning diary to the kitchen sink and watches the pages burn, the past turning to ash.

*  *  *

John and Yoko go public with their reunion on March 1, 1975, live and on television. The occasion is the seventeenth Grammy Awards, held at the Uris Theatre, in Manhattan.

Wearing a black suit and black beret, Elton’s medallion, a pin that spells “Elvis” in sparkling letters, and a gold ring on his left ring finger, John takes the stage with Paul Simon (formerly of the duo Simon and Garfunkel, who split in 1970 while Art Garfunkel was pursuing an acting career) to present the night’s top honor, Record of the Year.

“Hello, I’m John. I used to play with my partner, Paul,” John says.

“I’m, uh…I’m Paul. I used to play with my partner, Art,” responds Simon.

When Olivia Newton John’s “I Honestly Love You” wins, things appear to get a little tense as Garfunkel himself comes onstage to accept the award on her behalf.

“Are you ever getting back together again?” John asks the famous duo, in an obvious joke, and Simon immediately returns the question, “Are you guys getting back together again?” “No,” John says with a laugh. “It’s terrible, isn’t it?”

Paul McCartney, who earlier in the evening won in absentia for “Band on the Run” (Best Pop Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus), isn’t around to comment on John’s response.

But John’s other reunion is newsworthy. The press picks up on the “Thank you, Mother” (John’s term of endearment for Yoko), which he called out as he made his entrance, and snaps photos of the couple, Yoko in a floor-length white gown with ostrich-feather trim.

Of that Grammy appearance with Yoko, John says, “I was glad it was big, and it was quick, so we got maximum effect and it sort of said it without having to go through a big routine—it just sort of went in all the right papers and magazines, and there we were, and that’s it.”

*  *  *