Who is Aunt Milly and why should she come back

This photo taken by Mike McCartney shows Uncle Albert and Aunt Milly taking a rest at the McCartney home on Forthlin Ave in Liverpool.

Every time I watch the film of "All you need is love" I see a sign that says "Come Back Milly" and I wonder to myself.   "Who exactly is Milly?   Why does someone want her to come back?"     

The Milly in question is Jim McCartney's sister.    She was married to man named Albert Kendall, (Uncle Albert).        She must have been a special woman in Paul's life.    When Paul's mother, Mary passed away, it was Paul's aunties that really stepped up and helped out Jim take care of the household needs and the two young boys.      Paul honored her memory by giving the middle name of "Milly" to his youngest child, Beatrice.    (And here I thought it had something to do with her mother's last name!).        Aunt Millie was the only family member that was concerned when Paul was to marry Linda.    She wasn't sure about her nephew marrying an American woman.     Although maybe others in the family had concerns and only dear Auntie Milly had the guts to speak up and say something.      

In the spring of 1967, Milly traveled to Adelaide, Australia to visit her son, Jim.    There was some real worry in the family that Milly might decide to live in Australia and never return to England.  The McCartney's wanted to get a message to her to let her know that she is loved and missed at home and they want her to come back!

Her nephew, Paul was going to be on the first ever world-wide satellite broadcast with his band, The Beatles, performing their new song, "All you need is love."    This would be the perfect way to get the message across to Milly.    And so Paul painted a very simple sign that read "Come Back Milly!"

 photo by David Magnus

The sign was displayed during the broadcast and 400 million people around the globe saw it while they watched the Beatles perform. 

One of those 400 million people was, you guessed it Milly Kendall.   Angie McCartney wrote in her book, My Long and Winding Road,   "Milly told us she had not long arrived and was tired and exhausted from her journey.   But they had the telly on in the next room and she was half watching the screen when suddenly this placard came up.  She was flabbergasted , as at this stage we were not as tech saturated as we are now.   It was a real link between our two hemispheres."

No one knows if Milly really was going to stay in Australia indefinitely, but after a short time she came right back to England.    I guess you can say that the sign worked.