How Paul McCartney’s Mother Tragically Died When He Was 14

Tragedy struck the McCartney family during the summer of 1955. Paul’s mother finally sought treatment for the lump in her breast and was diagnosed with breast cancer. She didn’t live long after that. Here’s who Paul McCartney’s mother was and how she died. 

Paul McCartney’s mother, Mary Patricia Mohin

McCartney’s mother’s name was Mary Patricia Mohin. She was “a good Irish Catholic girl who was a trained nurse and midwife,” according to the Beatles biography The Love You Make by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines. She married the Beatle’s father, James McCartney, in 1941 when he was 39 and she was 32. Almost immediately after the wedding, Patricia became pregnant with Paul. When it came time to give birth to her son, Patricia received VIP treatment at Walton General Hospital because she used to be the head nurse in the maternity ward. She was given her own private room. Later, she had one more child: Paul’s brother Peter Michael. 

How Paul McCartney’s mother died

Paul and Michael attended Boy Scout camp the summer of 1955. It rained the whole week. Worried that their children were getting soaked without any dry clothes to change into, Mary and James drove down to check on their sons and bring them some new clothes. But on the way back, Mary began to experience extreme pain. According to TLYM, she’d noticed a small lump in her breast but believed it to be a symptom of menopause. With this new level of pain, though, she had a feeling it was something far worse. When a friend of hers, Olive Johnson, helped put her to bed that night, she told Olive “I don’t want to leave the boys just yet.”

A few weeks later, she had surgery at Northern Hospital to remove the breast cancer. But it was unsuccessful. A few hours after the operation, she passed. 

The first thing Paul said after learning about his mother’s death was: “What are we going to do without her money?”

He and Michael cried themselves to sleep that night. For months, Paul prayed that God would change his mind and give him his mother back. As time went on, he learned to live with the grief. 

“She was just a very comforting presence in my life,” said Paul, as reported by the Telegraph. “And when she died, one of the difficulties I had, as the years went by, was that I couldn’t recall her face so easily. That’s how it is for everyone, I think. As each day goes by, you just can’t bring their face into your mind, you have to use photographs and reminders like that.”    

The Beatle dove into music following his mother’s death

Shortly after Paul’s mother died, the skiffle craze began, catapulting the guitar to the forefront of the music scene. The future Beatle was happy to have something to pour his undivided attention into. After Lonnie Donegan’s appearance in Liverpool, Paul desperately wanted a guitar. Somehow, his father was able to scrape together £15 to buy him one. And once Paul got his hands on a guitar, it was next-to-impossible to get him to put it down.