"Mother Mary comes to me..."

When I find myself in times of trouble,
Mother Mary comes to me.
Speaking words of wisdom: Let it be

And in my hour of darkness,
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom: Let it be

I've listened to those lyrics for forty years without knowing the backstory.  Yesterday while driving to the library, I heard a BBC report about the top five Beatles' songs being uploaded on iTunes, and a commentor mentioned in passing that the "mother Mary" referred to in the song was in fact Paul McCartney's mother.  The story, via Wikipedia:

McCartney said he had the idea of "Let It Be" after a dream he had about his mother during the tense period surrounding the sessions for The Beatles (the "White Album"). McCartney explained that his mother—who died of cancer when McCartney was fourteen—was the inspiration for the "Mother Mary" lyric.  McCartney later said, "It was great to visit with her again. I felt very blessed to have that dream. So that got me writing 'Let It Be'."  He also said in a later interview about the dream that his mother had told him, "It will be all right, just let it be."

You learn something every day.

Image credit (A photo of Mary McCartney when she worked at The Walton Hospital. Taken from the "Woman" album by Mike McCartney/McGear.)