Volume 2: Life with Mimi

Cynthia and John with Mimi's cat Suki in Mendips after they got married and moved back in with Mimi.

One morning in Falkner Street, Cynthia woke up to discover blood. With her brother Tony's help, she immediately went to the Doctor's who told her to stay in bed for three days to avoid a miscarriage. A scared Cynthia did as she was told but didn't tell John until he got home and she was feeling better by then. Dot had moved in to help take care of her (why didn't Cynthia ever mentioned that?) until John and Cynthia moved back to Mendips with Aunt Mimi. I don't think John and Cynthia were thrilled as was Mimi but what other option was there? I do believe Mimi was trying to help, but at the same time she would have to give up half of her house and move upstairs while John and Cynthia took over the downstairs. John had to tour and was spending a lot of time in London where all the action was taken place and Cynthia was having a difficult first few months of pregnancy while being a secretive wife. Not an easy situation at all…

“At the time that the group went to London to make the record, John hadn't seen any of the family, including Mimi, since the wedding. He found it hard to forgive Mimi's refusal to be there on his special day and kept away from Mendips. It was Cynthia who finally persuaded him that he had suffered enough losses in his life and that this was the time to forgive his family, Mimi in particular. At Cyn’s insistence, they went to see Mimi one afternoon, unannounced, about 3 months later and were surprised by the warm welcome they received. Not long before, Cyn nearly had a miscarriage while John was away, which frightened them both. Luckily her brother had been able to come round, but she was spending a lot of time alone and John was worried. When Mimi heard about the threatening miscarriage, she immediately offered them the downstairs part of Mendips. She would move upstairs. It wasn't right for Cynthia to be on her own so much. We only knew about all this when Mimi came round and told Harrie. Cyn was rhesus negative and we heard lots of dangers of that if the baby was rhesus positive and that it wasn't good for her to be on her own, with her mother being in Canada. We didn't know anything about the near miscarriage, only that Cyn wasn't very well and that John was away a lot, busy being a Beatle. I was sent to Mimi's on an errand shortly after her offer to John and Cyn. She was often frosty with me, sending me promptly on my way, but at other times she was kinder, giving me a drink and asking about school. On this occasion, she told me John and Cyn were moving in and she said she was going to the flat that day to see them to discuss arrangements. She invited me upstairs and said that she had been thinking of how to split the house. John’s small front bedroom was going to be her kitchen, and the large front bedroom into her sitting room. She would carry on sleeping in the back bedroom. They would share the upstairs bathroom and the gardens. She bought a Baby Belly cooker and put it where John's bed had been, facing the wall. She would do her washing up in the bowl with hot water from the bathroom. Mimi always had shared Mendips with the students but we all knew how much against the marriage she had been, and now of course she was offering to move out of her own kitchen and morning room, which can't have been easy. This was a major turnout and I could only think that Mimi was genuinely concerned and meant to be kind. Downstairs, John and Cyn were to have the students’ sitting room/study as their bedroom. We had rarely been allowed into that room, next to the morning room at the back of the house. I remember going round the back of the garden and seeing them lying in bed there, late in the morning, with the French windows wide open to the garden, still asleep. I brought them tea and toast in bed. It was never plain sailing, however, and it wasn't long before Mimi was criticizing Cynthia. It seemed that everything she did and said was wrong. She took them in because she loved John and wanted to help, but she soon appeared to resent it and made their lives miserable. It was just like what we experienced round the corner in The Cottage with Harrie.”

Julia Baird

“By the end of the afternoon, the decision was made and shortly afterwards my belongings were on the move again to Mimi's house. As I’d guessed, it wasn't easy. It was months before Mimi finally got round to creating her upstairs flat and, in the meantime, we got under each other's feet. When John was there Mimi was fine but when he was away she could be moody and sharp-tongued and in my over-sensitive pregnant state, I frequently retired hurt. Admittedly on good days, she helped me with my cooking and taught me to make apple pie but, on balance, it wasn't a happy arrangement.”

Cynthia, 1994

According to Cynthia's second book, John, Mimi would vacuumed at 7 AM every morning to wake Cynthia up- even on weekends! When Mimi was in a rarely good mood, Cynthia would actually note it in her diary. Whenever John would call in, Mimi would chat with him long enough until time was almost up when Mimi would finally hand over the phone for John and Cynthia could only say hi and bye… however I do know it didn't happen all the single time and Cynthia got her longer conversations on the phone. It wasn't like the communication today compared to 1962, 1963. There were no cell phones, emails. Instead there were letters (snail mail) and calls you put in the operator on the landline phone with a cord. Plus, it cost a lot for long distance during that time.

When John was home and doing some songwriting with his guitar, Mimi's rule still applied: he had to play on the porch, not indoors. John would call Cynthia to come out to listen to a potential lyric and music of a song. Since Cynthia had the proper kitchen, she had to feed the cats. Shredding away fresh fish would stink up the kitchen and make Cynthia gag… just thinking about it makes me gag! Whenever John was away, I’m certain he expected a call on whether Mimi or Cynthia killed one another.

“During my pregnancy, The Beatles were rising stars. I was watching them on television becoming famous, while I was pregnant. You know this from all the book that I was not supposed to be known or heard about. In the wisdom, or lack of wisdom, anything to do with somebody becoming famous- male- was not supposed to be married or have a girlfriend. So, I spent most of my pregnancy disguising it.”

Cynthia

As mentioned before, while dating, John would giddy up whenever Cynthia would arrive at Mendips and pretend to be all cool and suave. Now, it was Cynthia waiting for John at Mendips all giddy until he entered to be all cool and suave. Julia witnessed both times.

“When Cynthia moved into Mendips 3 years later, while they were waiting for Julian's arrival, a similar thing happened, only it was John on the bus and Cynthia in Mendips. This time, I was 15. I was chatting to Cyn in the morning room as she was putting on her lipstick, and she was making all those faces you make when trying to have luscious lips. I was staring so intently that she gave me the lipstick as a present, although it was a new one. My first lipstick! Then she brushed her long blonde hair over her shoulders, moving it this way and that. She was waiting for John. We heard the wooden gate latch click open and shut. Suddenly, Cyn, after peeping through the window to check, sat down in the armchair and leaned back, spreading her hair over her shoulders, and closed her eyes. I watched her closely, then switched my gaze to John as he walked in from the kitchen. He was mesmerized! He grunted at me and made straight for the model posing in the chair. A bizarre moment of reversal.”

Julia Baird

“I said to these students, and people nearby, that I was John's girlfriend, but I was also a student and that's the reason I gave them for wearing smocks. 'I’m an artist and I do some work here at home,’ I’d say. What they didn't realize, I hope, was that the smocks were getting bigger and bigger to hide the baby.”

Cynthia, 1985

“Rumors started to go around that John had a wife hidden away up in Liverpool. But when I asked him if it was true, he always denied it. And on tours and when the Beatles were down in London, he always acted like a totally free agent.”

Maureen O'Grady, Journalist

We will get to John's cheating while a married man later in another post.

Some time after moving in with Mimi and Julia’s witness of Cynthia welcoming John home, during one of his frequent arrival homes that were becoming more further apart, Cynthia decided to doll herself up pretty. A hairdresser convinced Cynthia to cut her long hair short… I don't know how short but enough for Cynthia to freak out. The only thing that could prolong Cynthia's excuse of what happened to her hair was to put them in curls. John came home late while she was 'asleep’. Betcha she faked it so she wouldn't show her guilty face. But the following morning, she just couldn't hide it. Sure enough, John didn't take her hair-do change too lightly. John was livid! John gave Cynthia the silent treatment for three days, wouldn't even look at her. Cynthia preferred to be yelled at than silence. After the 3rd day, John thawed. Maybe he realized that fighting over hair was ridiculously silly. Years later, Cynthia realized that for John at that stage everything was changing around him; he expected Cynthia to look the same and when he saw a change, John blew up. His music was playing on the radio, he was appearing on television, getting recognized, performing more and everywhere. Cynthia was his rock: stable, supportive, and comfort.

On January 2, 1963, John flew home from a tour in Scotland to surprise Cynthia. He had less than 24 hours of having a break. John used that free time window to be with his pregnant wife from 7:00 PM until 5:00 AM to fly back. John did that again a year later in 1964. This time, Cynthia and 9-month old Julian were living in London (no Mimi around) and John came from Paris around the time the Beatles’ song I Want to Hold Your Hand went to number 1 on the United States Billboard charts.

“I got pregnant, we got married, the Beatles began- and we were all plunged into the whirlwind.”

Cynthia, 1981

Since I am not a doctor or had motherhood experience, you can read more about the rhesus on the American Pregnancy website