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The song has had so much impact that a statue honoring Eleanor Rigby
-- be she real or imagined -- has been built in downtown Liverpool. Passers-by often place flowers there. Owen said "every penny" from the auction will go to Sunbeams Music Trust, a charity that provides music instruction to people with special needs. The charity's founder, Annie Mawson, received the document from McCartney after writing him an 11-page letter seeking help for her foundation, which uses Beatles songs, among others, to teach music to people with physical and mental disabilities. She has found, for example, that autistic children respond well to Beatles music. "I told Paul McCartney how his music had helped so many vulnerable children," she said. She hand-delivered the letter to McCartney's London office in 1989 and received the hospital payroll document in the mail the following year. It was in an envelope carrying the logo of McCartney's world tour, but did not contain any note. "I think my letter moved him, so he sent me this beautiful parchment document, a ledger, from 1911, showing E. Rigby," Mawson said. "My head was whirling when I saw the significance." Her plan is to use the proceeds from the auction to finally build a music instruction center in Cumbria, England, where the charity is based. "This is what I dreamt about in the '90s," she said, explaining that she held the document for years as the value of Beatles memorabilia soared. "It's taken this long to develop the charity and get a good team behind it, and now we really need a proper center."
[Associated
Press;
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