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| Yoko on her 50th birthday. Photo by Diane Carroll |
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| Diane Carroll, Yoko and Paula Leach. Photo by Sam Havadtoy |
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| Yoko, Sean and Sam Havadtoy. Photo by Diane Carroll |
By Paula Leach
February 18th of this year (1983) had to be the
best day of my life. There was a group
of Beatlefans in Strawberry Fields (I’d say a little more than a dozen). I got there about 12:30. We were all talking and signing birthday
messages for Yoko on the back of a painting a guy did for her. As I was sitting in the park, I saw a truck
stop and a guy carrying a bunch of balloons into the Dakota.
I knew those had to be for Yoko so I told everyone. We all knew she was there having a
party. Then after a while we decided to
go to the front of the Dakota to drop off the cards, letters and presents for
her. We hung around the Dakota for a few
minutes, then I noticed a bodyguard of Yoko’s standing right at the archway, so
I went up to him and said, “Excuse me, is Yoko coming out?” He said, “Yes, she’ll be coming down in a
couple of minutes.” So when he said
that, I felt like I was hit over the head!
I couldn’t believe it! I turned
around and told my friends that she was coming out. We were all going nuts (to say the
least). Then all of a sudden, Yoko came
out with a bright red shirt and black pants and Sean carrying tons of balloons
with a bodyguard and assistants carrying the birthday cake and napkins. The first thing I noticed was Yoko had her
hair cut a lot shorter. I couldn’t
believe I was actually looking at her and Sean.
He’s so cute. He’s a lot smaller
in person than in pictures. Then all of
a sudden, as Yoko and her crew were walking towards us, Yoko said, “There’s
some cake left I brought for you.” Then
I said, “Happy birthday” and Yoko said, “Thank you.” As this was going on, Yoko had a video crew
filming this whole event. Then Yoko was
holding a big bunch of balloons and she handed them to Sean and then Sean took
them to the sidewalk and let’s go of them.
The balloons flew up in the air and everyone cheered and Sean yelled,
“Don’t crash!” then he ran back to Yoko
and we all sang “Happy Birthday” to her.
As we were singing it, I got chocked up because she looked so happy Then
Sean looked up at her face and Yoko looked down and smiled to him as we were
singing. As soon as we stopped singing,
Yoko said, “thank you thank you!” And
then some kids handed her cards and Sean kept yelling “Don’t crash” to the
balloons, as he and Yoko walked quickly into the Dakota. My friends and I turned around and screamed
and hugged one another. We couldn’t
believe it all. Then we went over to the assistant who was handing out the cake
and I swathe guy with the video camera filming us. The assistant handed us napkins with rainbows
on them and after everyone took a piece of cake, the assistants went in.
We were all so happy! It was the greatest feeling. You could fee John’s presence there, the warmth and happiness from it all. Then the video crew came back out and said “Yoko wants to know what do you want to be when you’re 50?” He asked a couple of people then came to me and I said, “I just wanted to be relaxed and happy. Fifty’s just a number. You can be as old as you want to or as young as you want to, as the old saying goes ‘Life Begins at 40.’” Then he went to a few more people.
After all the excitement, we decided to chip in
and send a cake up to Yoko. After we did
that, we hung around Strawberry Fields, then later we found out she was going
to be going out somewhere so we stood around the front of the Dakota and waited
a while. Finally her limo came out and
we could hardly see her because of the dark widows. Everyone was waving and Yoko waved back. Then the limo went up the street. After that, we stayed around a bit longer
playing Beatles music. Then we decided
to leave. Everyone felt happy – we felt
a natural high from it all. I really
didn’t’ think she would come We were all so happy! It was the greatest feeling. You could fee John’s presence there, the warmth and happiness from it all. Then the video crew came back out and said “Yoko wants to know what do you want to be when you’re 50?” He asked a couple of people then came to me and I said, “I just wanted to be relaxed and happy. Fifty’s just a number. You can be as old as you want to or as young as you want to, as the old saying goes ‘Life Begins at 40.’” Then he went to a few more people.
