With poetry and a bagpiper and the haunting strains of "Let it Be," former Beatle Paul McCartney paid homage to his wife, Linda, who died of breast cancer in April at age 56.
"After she died I was thinking of her and I thought of her like a diamond," an emotional McCartney told mourners Monday. "A big orange diamond. And if you look at all the facets of the diamond, as with every facet you looked at, she was greater."
He told the 700 guests at a private memorial service in the historic church of St. Martins-in-the-Fields that he still cannot believe his wife of nearly 30 years is dead. "But I have to because it's true."
Mourners sang "Let it Be" in tribute to the many talents of the former Linda Eastman of Scarsdale, N.Y.: photographer, vegetarian, animal rights campaigner, musician, wife and mother.
McCartney penned the hit as a tribute to his mother, who died of breast cancer when he was 14.
"It was amazing, it was a beautiful hymn," comedian Tracey Ullman said after the service. Celebrity guests included the other surviving Beatles, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, as well as Sting and Elton John.
In adjoining Trafalgar Square, animal rights activists set up a giant pair of angel's wings for condolence messages and hung banners proclaiming "Linda: The Animals' Angel" in several languages.
Vegetarian children laid flowers beside a large photograph of Linda McCartney cuddling a tiny chick.
Hundreds of people waited for up to seven hours in the rain and wind to pay tribute. A cheer rose when McCartney, 55, arrived at the church with Heather, 36, his wife's daughter by her first marriage and the couple's children Mary, 27, Stella, 26, and James, 21.
The Brodsky Quartet played eight songs McCartney wrote for his wife, including "The Lovely Linda" and "Calico Skies" and a single piper played "Mull of Kintyre," a hit for McCartney's band Wings.
Actress Joanna Lumley and photographer David Bailey read poems and The Who guitarist Pete Townshend and writer Carla Lane gave tributes.
McCartney revealed that when he went to pick up his knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace last year, Linda was too ill to attend. But that morning, she presented him with a silver watch inscribed, "To Paul, my knight in shining armor."
"Through our kids, our beautiful kids, her spirit lives on," he said.
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