Sir Paul McCartney Said He Cried for a Year After Wife Linda's Death
More than 20 years after the death of Linda McCartney, the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, Scotland, is hosting a major exhibition of her photography work.
The exhibition was curated by Sir Paul McCartney, Linda’s husband, along with Mary and Stella McCartney.
In an interview with the BBC, McCartney opened up about his wife’s death and how it reflected his own mother’s death. Linda McCartney died in 1998 from breast cancer, a diagnosis she had received three years prior.
McCartney married Linda Eastman in 1969, and even today, the 77-year-old Beatles singer remembers what it was like to grieve her untimely death.
“I think I cried for about a year on and off,” McCartney told the BBC. “You expect to see them walk in, this person you love, because you are so used to them.”
“I cried a lot,” McCartney said. “It was almost embarrassing except it seemed the only thing to do.”
Paul McCartney ‘Cried for a Year’ After Wife Linda’s Death: ‘It Seemed the Only Thing to Do’ https://t.co/NUMpr6448L
— People (@people) July 5, 2019
McCartney openly grieved the loss of his wife, a stark contrast to the stifled grief he witnessed as a teenage boy working through the death of his mother.
McCartney’s mother, Mary McCartney, died in 1956 at just 47 years old.
McCartney, who was just 14 years old at the time, said his family did not speak about his mother’s illness.
“Both my mum and Linda died of breast cancer. We had no idea what my mum had died of because no one talked about it. She just died,” McCartney told the BBC.
“The worse thing about that was everyone was very stoic, everyone kept a stiff upper lip and then one evening you’d hear my dad crying in the next room,” McCartney continued.
“It was tragic because we’d never heard him cry. It was a quiet private kind of grief.”
McCartney told Glasgow West End that his late wife would have loved the retrospective photography exhibit honoring her life’s passion.
“It is really good having this exhibition in such a cool gallery in Glasgow,” he said. “The whole family loves to honor Linda’s work – she would have loved this because Glasgow was a place she loved.”
“She loved Scotland because it gave us a lot of fond memories, a lot of freedom and a lot of happy times,” McCartney said.
Linda’s photography work is set to be displayed from July 5 until Jan. 12, 2020, and is expected to be the most highly-anticipated exhibition of the museum’s season.
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