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Photo: Barry Farrel |
The Chase (May 29, 1982)
By Beth Sanders
We had heard about Michael McCartney’s wedding from some
friends, and we had been planning to leave Liverpool early Saturday, as we had
some things to do in London before flying home Sunday. When we were told about the wedding and also
finding out where it was going to be, we altered our plans and stayed in
Liverpool until Saturday evening.
That morning we walked around Liverpool once again. We walked up near the Anglican Cathedral, by
the Art College and the Institute, over to the Blue Angel, now the Razmataz
Club, and over to the Jacaranda, now the Maxi Sun Suzi. About 11:30 we hailed a taxi and the driver
dropped us off by St. Barnabas Church in Penny Lane. A small crowd had already gathered and some
girls were sitting on the sidewalk singing Beatles songs. We found a place across the street from the
church where we could keep an eye on comings and goings. Everyone once in a while someone would walk
by and ask us when the wedding was. There
was some confusion to this as some of the girls who had been hanging around
were saying one time, but the paper had said another time. A few older women came up and asked about the
wedding and one mentioned that she knew the McCartney boys when they were
children. Another woman told us that she
was a friend of the family of the bride.
Around 2:00 pm the crowd thickened and we decided that we’d
better go across the street near the entrance of the church, which we had been
told was always the entrance used for weddings.
In a while a bobby came up and made the crowd clear a path to the door,
and everyone began to think that someone was going to be going in. After a while we realized that wasn’t the
case, and Mary decided to walk around the church and see what was going on
elsewhere. At every entrance around the
church the crowds were even thicker than where we were and if anyone had gone
in, there was no way of knowing because you wouldn’t’ have been able to see
anyone. In a few minutes Mary rejoined Deb and me and
we waited. About 2:30, Mary again went
around to the other side of the church to check things out, and as she neared
the nucleus of the crowd, she knew someone was going in, but she couldn’t’ tell
who. She decided to step out into the
street some to try to see around the people, and as she did so, she was almost
knocked over by a silver Volvo station wagon!
Knowing that that was Paul’s car she looked inside to see Paul
and Linda and some of the children. The
car went around the church and Mary was right behind it, running all the
way. The Volvo stopped in back of the church and as Mary finally got
there, Linda was getting out of the car, Stella had already gotten out, and
Mary McCartney was trying to get James off of her lap and out the front car
door. Paul was still sitting in the car
and got out after Mary, and they paused for a moment at the door to the
parsonage as Paul signed something for someone!
They went on in almost immediately and Mary went back around the church
to find Deb and me. Meanwhile we had
gone around to the same side of the church where Mary had been when she first
spotted the Volvo and John Hammil was driving it back around the church. We had taken off after it when we found Mary
and she had informed us that Paul was already inside. The Volvo was parked near where we had been
standing and we stayed by the car knowing that Paul would get in it sooner or
later. John Hammil was now sitting on the
roof of the car with a video camera to video the wedding party as they came out
of the door.
About 3:30pm the side entrance opened and we could barely
see Michael and his new bride in the doorway.
A roar went up from the crowd as Paul and Linda stepped into view. We started waving, but knew that through the
hundreds of people that we there, he wouldn’t see our hands. Trevor and some other man escorted the
children to the car first and they could hardly get through the crowd. It looked like James was scared and about to
cry. As they were sitting in the car,
Stella mentioned to Mary that she was worried about Dad and Mom making it to
the car. Paul and Linda started to make
their way there but people would just not move out of the way and everybody just
kept reaching for Paul’s hand to shake it.
Finally, they made it to the car with the help of some Bobbies. When they were safe inside the car, John took
off hurriedly and Michael and Rowena were right behind them.
We caught taxi back to Lime Street Station to catch our
train back to London. All the way back
to London, we laughed at the image of Mary chasing that silver Volvo station wagon
all the way around the church.
"Stella mentioned to Mary that she was worried about Dad and Mom making it to the car." Awwww. Imagine being a kid and having to worry about things like that. :(
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