George Harrison Traveled Around the World for Treatment and Pleasure the Year He Died
George Harrison traveled the world for treatment and pleasure the year he died. However, in November 2001, George settled in Los Angeles. One by one, his friends came to see him to say their final goodbyes. When George died on Nov. 29, his soul left his body so effortlessly and peacefully, he lit the room.
George Harrison traveled the world, seeking treatment for various cancers the year he died
In 1997, George discovered a lump in his throat. Doctors diagnosed him with throat cancer and successfully removed the lump. Then, according to Rolling Stone, George underwent two radiation treatments at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, one of the U.K.’s leading cancer centers.
George played his illness down by saying, “I am very lucky. I’m not going to die on you folks just yet.”
Not long after becoming cancer-free, George almost died in a home invasion in 1999. The former Beatle’s son, Dhani, believed the attack, which left his father with multiple stab wounds and a collapsed lung, took years off George’s life.
Doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota examined George annually, but in March 2001, they diagnosed him with lung cancer. That May, he underwent successful surgery to remove a growth. However, by the summer, he received news his cancer had spread to his brain.
Immediately, George and his wife, Olivia, started a worldwide search for treatment. It was reported that he was recovering from his lung surgery in a villa in Luino, Italy, but he was actually receiving “grueling” cobalt treatments for a brain tumor at the San Giovanni hospital in Bellinzona, Switzerland.
In November, the Harrisons’ treatment search led them to Staten Island University Hospital in New York. However, treatment didn’t work.
George also traveled the world for pleasure the year he died
While he traveled the world for treatment, George took time to be with his family the year he died. George attended his son’s graduation from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Then, when George and Olivia discovered his cancer was terminal, they went to Fiji. They had the whole place to themselves.
“We had this whole 30 years together, and then at the end, you’re able to just decant that time,” Olivia said in Martin Scorsese’s documentary, George Harrison: Living in the Material World. “We spent that summer together, and we had so much fun.
“It’s amazing, at the end of your life, here’s the conversation: ‘I hope I wasn’t a bad husband.’ ‘Well, I hope I was an OK wife.’ ‘How did we do?’ Then, you think, ‘Oh, I’m so glad. I’m so glad that we just kept walking this path together. And all those other things that came and went, we just swatted away, in between us.'”
During the summer, George traveled to India for the last time. He visited Varanasi, a holy city on the Ganges River. He bathed in the river before returning to Europe. There, he recorded “Horse to the Water,” a song he wrote with Dhani, for Jools Holland’s Small World Big Band. He appeared on a few of his friends’ albums too.
George also visited Maui before returning to Switzerland for more cobalt treatment. Then, George started receiving treatment from Dr. Gil Lederman on Staten Island. There, George had his final meeting with former bandmates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. Paul suggested George retire at Speke Hall in Liverpool. However, George and his family moved to L.A.
The former Beatle ‘lit up the room’ when he died
Once in L.A., George used Olivia’s maiden name to check into UCLA Medical Center as Jorge Arias. However, the doctors there couldn’t do much but alleviate George’s pain. Then, George only cared about peace and privacy.
As a very spiritual person, George was not afraid of death. It was just like taking your suit off. The former Beatle had been preparing to die for years. He wanted to leave his body totally without regrets or worries. Dhani even claimed George bore no scars on his body at the moment of his death, which was a special experience.
George died peacefully on Nov. 29, 2001, in the company of his friends and family, while his friends from the Hare Krishna Temple chanted to God.
When it finally came time for George to leave the material world, Olivia said he lit the room. “There was a profound experience that happened when he left his body,” she explained. “It was visible. Let’s just say you wouldn’t need to light the room if you were trying to film it. You know, he just lit the room.”
Later, his family released the following statement: “He left this world as he lived in it, conscious of God, fearless of death, and at peace, surrounded by family and friends. He often said, ‘Everything else can wait but the search for God cannot wait, and love one another.'”
