Worth it in the End

This little fan story has one tid bit of information about George:  he read the fan magazines of the late 1970's.   I know that they all sent the Beatles issues of the fanizes, but you just never knew if they even bothered to look at them.   However, we now know that George was familiar enough with them to know that someone was sending in photos of his son to them.   And what is really funny is that maybe he even read this issue of Harrison Alliance and found out that this particular fan was lying to him. 

This story was written by Denise Nichols and was published in the January 1980 issue of The Harrison Alliance.   The photo is one that I found in my files.  The photo was taken at an airport in London on October 20, 1979, a week before Denise and her friends had this encounter with George.  I thought I would post it so you could see what George looked like during this time (especially since she spoke of him having a beard).

Worth it in the end

By Denise Nichols

                I met George again on Saturday 27^th October at Friar Park.  I was with my friend Barb Fenick and Jean Steinert.  I didn’t really think that George would be home at first, because the Monday before, I read in the papers that George and Olivia were on their way to America!  But when we arrived to Henley on Friday the 26^th, we saw Olivia and Dhani, so we knew that George must be home since Olivia was.  George’s gardeners had remembered me from last time, so they came over to speak to me.  They told us that George WAS home!  They all asked about the last time I was there, and asked whether George came down to see us (Angela, Graeme and me that is).  I said, “Yeah.  He was just lovely.  So handsome!”  The gardeners laughed and said, “See, we knew he’d be down to see you.”  Then they all wished us luck in seeing George again.

Well it was Saturday finally when a Mercedes came down that little road to Friar Park gates.  A man stepped out to open the gates and at first I didn’t recognize him!  It was Barb who first said, “It’s George!”  Sure enough, it was him.  He looked so different to when I saw him in August.  This time he had grown a beard and he wore some round sunglasses.  Still as beautiful and sexy as ever mind you.

George drove the Mercedes out past the gates then stopped to go and close them again.  It looked like he was in a real big hurry to go somewhere, because he was moving so fast.  He kept looking at us, expecting that maybe one of us would say something.  But none of us did.  So before he stepped  into the Mercedes, again he looked up over the roof to me as though he wanted me to say something.  Speechless at the time, I waited until he got into the Mercedes before I finally thought of something to say.  I had remembered that I had my photo of Dhani that I had taken in my pocket photo album so I thought George may like it.  So I asked, “Can I give you something, George?”  George stopped the car, leaned over to the passenger side, rolled down the window and said, “What did you say? I couldn’t hear you.”  So I asked him again if I could give him something.  George said, “Yeah, sure.”  I pulled out the photo of Dhani and George asked, “What is it?”  As he took it from me I said, It’s a photo of Dhani that I took when I saw him in August.”  George had a good look at the photo and then asked, “Are you the one that sends these to the fan magazines?”  Well, I was a bit shocked when he said that, and with those eyes looking at me, I had to say the first thing that came into my mind. “NO!  I don’t send them to any magazines, George!”  George said “Ohhhh…..” and looked at me with the cheekiest look, as though he knew I was lying!  Then he added, “Thanks.”

I noticed that sitting on the seat besides George was a Paddington Bear and behind George sat Dhani and Olivia sat beside Dhani.

George then put the photo in one of the compartments near the passenger seat, and it looked like he was ready to go, so I said, “Bye” then George said, “Bye,” and drove away down Paradise Road.

It all seemed to happen too quick!  One minute he was there, then the next he was gone!  But all the waiting is definitely worth it in the end, isn’t it?