This story is a few years old, however a new photo of the fan, Gail, has been found in the past couple of months, which reminded me of this story and how I never put it on this blog. It is a great story!
Just sixteen and living in Montreal at the time of the Bed-In, Gail and a friend sneaked into the Queen Elizabeth Hotel where John and Yoko were holding their protest for Peace and became friendly with the recently married Lennons. John gave Gail a few momentos at the time, including the lyrics, telling her; “…one day they will be worth something…” and she has had them in her possession ever since.
Gail Renard was a student at Sir George Williams University in Montreal in 1969, when John Lennon and Yoko Ono came to Montreal to stage their Bed-In. Gail and a friend got into the room where John and Yoko were staying by climbing up the fire escape and waiting for the moment when the security guards outside Suite 1742 changed shifts; it was then that they knocked on the door and asked
for an interview for their university magazine. Arriving before the rest of the invited press, they quickly made themselves useful, running errands, playing with Yoko Ono’s five-year old daughter Kyoko and being generally helpful. John and Gail shared a similar sense of humour and got on very well. As a result, Gail spent the rest of the week with John and Yoko at the Bed-In and struck up a life-long friendship with John. In a final act of generosity, John Lennon effectively launched Gail’s early career as a writer, by calling the editor of The Beatles Monthly Magazine in London and instructing him to publish Gail’s review of the Bed-In.
thank you for posting, sara, i had never read about this girl.
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