Miss Tammy at the amazing Beatles Photo Blog was looking for this story, which I had posted way back during the blog's first year. I felt like it was time to repeat the story because it was such a good one.
When I have spoken about this blog at various places, I often get asked the question about which Beatle was the kindest to the fans. And people are shocked when I tell them "George" because George has this reputation for being a bit of a grump and hating fame and recognition. While it is true that George disliked the lack of privacy and the mania that came with being a Beatle, we have seen over and over again that George was the first one to stop and talk to the fans and even invite them into his home. This story from 1999 shows that George's loving heart toward his fans continued even later in his life.
A memorable visit to Henley-on Thames
By Javier Estrach
Originally published in the Oct/Sept 1999 Issue of Beatlefan
magazine
On holiday in England, my wife and I decided to go to Henley-on-Thames for a couple of days just to try to see George. We were sure that it would be almost impossible, but we’d try anyway.
We got to Friar Park on May 23 in the afternoon without a
clear idea of what we could do but wait. We took pictures of the house for a while, and we waited for, I don’t know, how long. We were going ‘round and
‘round until a few minutes later, we decided to walk by the street beside the
stockade on the right side of Friar Park.
So we walked away from the main gate. After a few minutes, we heard a noise in the
woods inside the estate, a sound like footsteps on dried leaves. We looked over our shoulders and saw a man
standing very quietly in the shadows watching us (we were talking Spanish, a
foreign language to him, so I suppose that called his attention). We recognized this very familiar silhouette.
So I started calling him:
“George! George!” Then he said very quietly, “Huh? Who’s there?”
“George, we come from Argentina just to try to see you. We have a present for you from our
country. Please, could you give us just
one minute? Please, just only one!”
“What kind of present?”
“It’s a T-shirt. It’s
for you, George.”
“But I don’t’ want a T-shirt.”
“Why not? It’s a
nice one! (I think he wasn’t so sure about us or what kind of people we
were).
Then I reminded him about another
present that I sent him earlier in the year.
“George, some months ago, I sent you by mail from Argentina
a Juan Manuel Fangio video (the old F1 car racer). Do you remember? I know you received it because a couple of
months ago, I received from your office this badge and card as a response. Please, George, give us just one minute. Please!”
Then he smiled and said the magical words: “OK, go down to the gate.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, go down to the gate.”
I can’t describe it—it was simply one of the most emotional moments of our lives. We were almost running to the gate, and I was thinking, “I can’t believe it! It’s true! I’m not dreaming! I’m here!”
Of course, we got to the gate first, so we had time to calm
ourselves. Within a minute, we could see
one of those little electric golf carts coming, approaching the gate. It was him!
He got out of the cart with a big smile on his face, and we said, “Nice
car, George.”
“Yes it is.” Then he
opened a smaller gate beside the big one and shook our hands (terrific!). We were thrilled and knowing that we were
living one of the greatest experiences of our lives.
He was dressed in jeans, white T-shirt, plaid shirt and a
dark red jacket. He looked healthy and
had a light, maybe 10 days’ beard, goatee-style.
We started telling him how important he is to us and how
important he has been through the years for us; not only his music but his
words and his way of thinking and that we learned to be better people because
of him.
He smiled and said, “Thank you very much. Thank you for listening. Many people hear stupid music now, music
without any sense.”
Then we were talking about the video that I sent him earlier
in the year and the “Ohm” badge and the card that he sent me back and he told
me that sometimes he prefers to send something better than a simple autograph
and that the Ohm and the Swami Sivananda’s words help people feel better inside
because everyone is special and that we were.
Then smiling he asked jokingly, “How is Gardel?” (A famous Argentinean
tango singer)”
And we responded, “Every day he sings better! It’s an old saying our country.” He smiled.
Then we gave him the T-shirt and he looked at it very
carefully and he asked us what the drawing was on it. We explained that it was a drawing of one of
the main streets of – and he added, “Ah!
Buenos Aires?”
“Yeah, very good George!”
“Thank you very much, but you don’t need to give me
anything.”
“We know but we live very far away from here and this is
just a way for us to feel a little bit closer to you.”
“OK, thank you.”
I reminded him about another little present I sent him. “Did you receive the magnet that I sent you
for your birthday?”
“For the fridge?” He
said, laughing.
“Yeah, that one.”
I sent him a little magnet and he’s got it on his
fridge! After talking with him for
awhile, we apologized if our English wasn’t as good as we would like; we were a
little bit nervous.
But he said, “Don’t worry. Your English is very good. You
speak much better English than I Spanish.”
He asked how long and where we were staying in Henley and
what places we had been visiting in Europe.
He laughed when he told him that we went to Hamburg and we talked about
the Reeperbahn and the Grosse Freiheit.
“That was a long time ago.”
We talked about the similarity between the “red light district”
in Amsterdam and the one in Hamburg. But the most important point is that he
was comfortable with us and always smiling.
He asked us what life was like in Buenos Aires. “I’ve never been to Argentina. I’ve only been to South America when I was in
Brazil many years ago.”
“Yeah, we remember. It
was in Guaruja with Emerson Fitipaldi in 1979.”
“Yeah, Emerson is a good friend of mine.”
Then, in the middle of our chat, I asked him, “What about
your health? How are you now?”
“Oh, fine, thanks. I was in America for a lot of tests, and the doctors said I was OK. Papers are
always saying a lot of silly things, but I am fine.”
After all that time at the gate of his house, we felt it was
time to start to say goodbye. We asked
for just one minute and he was very nice and gave a lot more. But first we asked if we could take a picture
with him. “Because our friend won’t
believe us, George.”
“Oh yeah, sure. One
picture with each one.”
So my wife, Silvia took my photo with him first. When I was ready to take the picture of him
with my wife, I don’t’ know what happened but the automatic camera didn’t
work! I tried two more times but without
any luck and George says, “There’s no more film in the camera.”
“No George, the film is OK.
I don’t’ know what the hell is going on!” So he very kindly took a look at the
camera. He pressed the red button and
–magic! It worked (He took the best
picture of my wife’s feet). So I took
the camera again and attempted to take the picture but again, the camera simply
didn’t work.
“I can’t believe it George!”
And he said joking “There are no good photographers these
days.”
Fortunately, we had two cameras with us so I used my old
‘60’s Asahi Pentex and this time I took one of the quickest photos of my life
with that camera.
Now finally it was time to say goodbye. He shook our hands I couldn’t help my impulse
so I embraced him strongly and he embraced me very warmly. He and Silvia embraced and George gave her a
kiss.
And so matchless was this moment for us, I said to him, “For
you, this is maybe one very little moment in your life, but not for us. This is something that we’ll never forget in
our whole life!”
“Oh! Isn’t that too
much?”
“No, it isn’t at all.”
“OK. Thank you. Bye-bye.”
“Bye George! Take
care!”
He went back inside, closed the small gate and just before
getting into the golf cart, he turned around with our gift in hand and said
thank you again.
“Thanks to you!” We
said and we could see the cart moving way into the woods.
