This week Lennon's killer Mark Chapman was refused parole for the tenth time, and Julie revealed she still finds it hard to speak about her brother's death.
Julia said she finds comfort in embracing John's legacy - rather than running away, saying: "There is no escape, And there is no point in pretending. It would hurt more to pretend I had nothing to do with him.”
What helps is the memory of the joyous early years before tragedy struck, the time when a teenage John first met Paul McCartney and George Harrison and invited them to join his band The Quarrymen.
Julia has taken on a directorship at the Cavern Club, where The Beatles played in their early years, but admits she never got to see them play there.
She said: “We weren’t allowed at the Cavern. I was 14, but looked like a 10-year-old, and the bus home only went to Penny Lane after 9.20pm. Woe betide you if you missed it because you had to walk a few miles.”
“They all rushed to the front and John is doing I Love You and he’s going, ‘Get the girls’. We were hauled on our stomachs back to the curtains. But I saw them in the kitchen often enough. And at home in our kitchen, where John was truly himself.
“That kitchen is where it all happened.”
“John sat at the end of the lorry. He was playing and Jackie and I went and grabbed a leg each to try and get him off. He was laughing his head off.”
Then rehearsals began in earnest, with Paul joining The Quarrymen and then his younger pal, George Harrison.
Julia said: “I first met Paul in our kitchen He started coming round a lot. We all danced to Elvis and skiffle.”
