Meanwhile, Paula McGuire and her friend Gina Harris were also missing school that day, although the circumstances for their absence were very different.

Unlike Joan Lennox, who had a reputation as one of the biggest troublemakers at her school, Paula McGuire had always been considered a model student. She was currently in the A class at the Liverpool Institute, getting top marks in nearly all her classes, with English and art being amongst her best subjects, and never having been punished for anything at school. Her biggest offense had probably been getting caught reading The Catcher in the Rye, a forbidden book, in her Biology class, but she'd only gotten a warning from her teacher. Although Paula wasn't amongst the most popular girls in school, all the students held some level of respect for her, permitting her to join them in any activities they took part in and seeking her advice if they had a problem.

But while everything seemed perfect for her at school, things at home were a different story. Her family had always struggled with money, requiring both her mother and father to take on jobs, with her mother working as a midwife and her father taking on any odd jobs that came his way. They always managed to provide the basics for Paula and her younger sister Michelle, and could sometimes save enough for respectable clothing and gifts, but that was usually the best they could do. Further complicating matters was Martin McGuire's fragile health. He'd been prone to illness since childhood, and whenever a case of the flu came up, he was always amongst the first to get sick. This resulted in him sometimes taking long periods off from work, forcing his wife Jeannette to take in more hours to bring in more money.

All had taken a turn for the worst this year, when Martin started experiencing difficulties in breathing and going through bad coughing fits. An emergency visit to the hospital revealed that he had developed lung cancer, brought about because of both a family history of cancer and Martin's own smoking habits since the age of fifteen, despite Jeannette's efforts to get him to quit. At first, he would come in for appointments two times a week for chemotherapy, but his condition had worsened to the point where he had to remain confined to the hospital. Now, he could barely speak anymore, and the doctors told his family that he had between two to five months left to live.

This explained why Paula decided not to go to school that Friday. Instead, she brought in her guitar in a black case, a bookbag with copies of all three Lord of the Rings books, and a box of chocolates, then went over to the Liverpool Hospital along with Gina Harris for company.

The two girls arrived at around nine thirty, and had to stay in the waiting room for ten minutes while a doctor examined Martin to see if he was in a shape to see visitors. Paula spend this time rereading bits from The Fellowship of the Ring, while Gina simply fidgeted with a loose string from her jacket with a blank expression on her face as she listened to the music coming from the radio of one of the hospital's secretaries. It was one of the orchestra symphonies which were always being played on BBC radio; not bad in of itself, but given the popularity of rock and roll among teenagers and the strong resistance to it that came from adults, hearing people play such music seemed reactionary. And for Gina Harris, who simply sighed with boredom once she heard the piece well enough, these was her exact thoughts on it.

"Gina, don't just sit around looking like that. Did you not bring something to pass the time away with?" Paula asked.

"What's the point of that if they usually call us in sooner than we expect?" Gina asked.

"You never know for sure. But either way, why do you always have to do this?"

"Do what?" Gina asked, although she perfectly understood what Paula meant.

"This habit you have of sitting around, spacing out, and not giving a damn about what goes on around you. It's already gotten you into a lot of trouble at school, and if you keep up with it, it will only make things worse for you," Paula said.

"Keep up with that bloody teacher act of yours, and you'll see just how much trouble I can be," Gina said, only half serious, but still wishing Paula would just back off. She didn't share Paula's attitude towards school, and was almost as careless about it as Joan, although her own rebellion was more of a quiet and solitary affair, while Joan always had to be vocal about what displeased her and have partners in crime by her side. Paula, being a year older than Gina, tried to get her to quit being so indifferent towards school, but Gina never listened to her.

What bonded these two girls, however, was their shared love of music, especially rock. Gina admired Paula's ability to memorize songs at full length and how disciplined she was in her practicing habits, always resulting in polished performances. Paula, meanwhile, loved Gina's songwriting, since she always came up with insightful lyrics that made her question why she couldn't put that much effort into an essay, as well as the change in attitude it provoked in her. When picking up a guitar, Gina showed passion for something, and threw in as much effort as possible to do well, even if her practicing habits were a bit off.

The girls were interrupted from going on when a nurse opened the door and said, "Paula McGuire? Your father's ready to see you now."

"Okay," Paula said, and she and Gina got up and walked into the quiet room where Martin McGuire was being confined to. The man who lay in the bed, being awfully thin and with the little hair he had left being grey and greasy, looked extremely different from the bulky, hard- working yet cheerful man who played swing songs on the piano and kept his daughters entertained with wild stories about his days as part of a jazz band back in the thirties. But despite how sickly he looked, Paula knew that his old spirit was still there, and it seemed to awaken the most when she brought in her guitar to show how she'd inherited much of the McGuire musical talent.

Paula walked up to her father's bed, pressed her hand into his own and said with a smile, "Hi, Dad. Nice to see you again after a week."

"Nice seeing you too, sweetheart," Martin whispered back in a raspy voice.

"You remember my friend Gina? We've been practicing music together for a while now. She's not as experienced as I am, but she's learning very quickly and becoming quite good at both playing the guitar and songwriting."

"I think I met her once," Martin said. Then, turning to Gina, he said, "Thank you for joining Paula, Gina."

Gina had turned pale upon seeing how sickly Paula's father looked. As someone who had healthy, almost picturesque parents and siblings, seeing her friend's father's poor condition came as a shock to her. And many years later, she would say this was the moment when the strong spirituality she would develop as an adult started budding. "Although I didn't know it at the time, I was slowly becoming more compassionate, understanding that not everything that brings happiness starts out by being pleasant to the eyes, if you know what I mean," she said in the series of interviews done in 1982.

But now, all the timid teenager could say was, "It's a pleasure to see you again, Mr. McGuire."

Martin smiled, "The more, the merrier," he said. "Now, when will the music start?"

"In a minute. Just let us get ready," Paula said. She then picked up her guitar case and started taking the guitar out, preparing to play a song she had written just a few days ago. Gina sat in the wooden chair beside her, since she had neither brought along an instrument nor memorized Paula's new song.

But just when she was about to start playing, a knock from the door. "Mr. McGuire?" called out the same nurse as before. "We have two other girls here saying that they're here to run an errand for you."

This had both Paula and Gina startled. Paula had spoken to Mr. Robinson several days ago, requesting for several records she'd ordered to be delivered to her father on this day. And as far as she knew, he didn't have any girls working for him, only a homely teenaged boy whom all the girls avoided because of rumors that he came from a family that lived amongst rubbish.

"Let them in," Martin said.

And so, in walked Joan Lennox and Sharron Stevens, looking so lively in comparison to the more serious state Paula and Gina were in.

"My first impression of Joan and Sharron was that they looked as if they were starting in on a school holiday," Paula later said as part of the same interview series. "They may have been in a hospital, but it seemed like it was an adventure to them, or part of some rebellious act. It didn't help that they were both wearing light red socks along with their school uniforms, a violation to most school dress codes requiring nothing but black, grey, or navy blue. Being the teenager that I was, it both shocked and impressed me."

Joan was similarly startled upon seeing Paula. Mr. Robinson had not been lying when he said she was pretty; she had raven black hair that was pulled up in a ponytail, dark eyes and eyelashes that were as long as a movie star's, a tall stature along with curvy legs and arms, and not a trace of a blemish on her face. Gina was a little pretty herself, with short, light brown hair and a slender body. She was quite short, looking more like she was still in primary school as opposed to being thirteen, but there was no denying her budding looks.

In contrast, Joan had wavy brown hair that she felt she could never get to look good no matter how often she combed and brushed it. And on that day, she happened to be wearing her dreaded spectacles, which she avoided wearing whenever she could because of their big lenses and dull grey frames. Sharron wasn't much of a looker herself, looking to Joan like the splitting image of Anne of Green Gables with her red hair that her mother always made her wear in braids and freckles all over her face.

But of course, Joan's interest in Paula could only be piqued by the guitar she held. She'd seen her preparing to play when she and Sharron had entered, and in a way, she was slightly annoyed that she'd had to stop to give her one of those weird stares people always gave strangers when they found them interesting for whatever reason.

And so, it was Joan who was the first to speak up amongst the group of girls: "Well, don't just stand there. Give us some of that talent you seem so keen on hiding."

Paula looked up at Joan with a sneaky smile. "What makes you convinced that I have talent? For all you know, I might just be a beginner who can't stand the feel of the strings against my fingers and can only play "Twinkle Little Star" as a result."

"Actually, that sounds a lot more like my friend Sharron here. She can sing really well, without even looking through music notes, in fact. But give her a guitar and she plays so badly that she can't even get "Silent Night" right."

"Got to admit that's true," Sharron said with a grin.

Martin seemed amused by the two girls' exchange. "Do you two know each other by chance?" he asked.

Joan could not understand his raspy voice, and so when he spoke up, she turned to Paula and asked, "What's he saying?"

"He's asking if we know each other," Paula clarified. Then, turning to her father, she said, "No, Dad. We don't."

"Because it seems like you might get on easily," he told her.

"I don't know. She seems too troublesome to me," Paula responded.

"Now, Paula. I thought your mother and I taught you better than to rely on your first impressions of people. From what I'm seeing, it looks like she could become a good friend of yours," her father said.

Paula shrugged. At the moment, making new friends wasn't high on her list of priorities. Being so close to losing her father, she couldn't think too much of adding in new people into her life, as it felt too much as if she were trying to replace his influence. Instead, she preferred to grow closer to the people who were already part of her life, like her mother, Michelle, or Gina, who until recently had been someone she only got together with on the bus to school.

But since she figured she wouldn't be seeing these two girls again anytime soon, she assumed it couldn't do much harm to include them into what was supposed to be a private moment with her father and friend.

And so, she turned to Joan and Sharron and said, "If you two want to, you can stick around for one song. One song, and that's it. Is that good enough?"

"Sure. No need to be so uptight about it though. Even your dad seems to enjoy our company," Joan said.

"I'm not being uptight, I'm just trying to make a point," Paula said. She noticed this got both Gina and Sharron giggling, and decided it was best to get on with the music before everything turned into a big joke. So, she picked up her guitar, and began to slowly strum the notes of a song she'd recently been trying to put together:

When I look into my window in troubled times,

a golden light shines down on me,

and I hear the wind whisper in my ear,

"Move along, child. Move along."

My tears make it hard to see the beauty in front of me

But my memories keep that wonderful moment alive

And now whenever hard times keep me down

I keep my head high and think back with a smile

On that time Mother Nature reminded me to move along

Move along, child. Move along.

Although her father had taught Paula much about using instruments, it was her mother who taught her songwriting. Having temporarily worked as a singer in a bar at the time she met Martin, Jeanette McGuire had written her own music on four different occasions, all of which had resulted in much praise from both her audiences and her employer, who considered recommending her to an agent in London. However, because of her commitment to midwifery and her later engagement to Martin, Jeanette had rejected his offer. Unlike her daughter, she couldn't imagine living a life of fame. She would later say that if she'd experienced all the things Paula had as a famous singer, she might have gone insane.

But just like her husband, Jeanette had taught both Paula and Michelle all she knew about music, including how to compose their own music. Michelle struggled with this, but Paula had picked up on it quickly. At the time, Jeannette had been working on writing several songs herself, intending to have Paula perform some of them to her husband during their hospital visits. However, she didn't have the energy to perform them herself. Her own visits consisted of giving words of comfort to Martin and praying the rosary for his health. As a result, she encouraged her oldest daughter to bring as much energy into their meetings as possible. "You have this strength in you that seems to be getting smaller within me," Jeanette had told her. "Give your father as much of it as you can. If we're to lose him this early, I know he'll want to go with a smile on his face."

Joan had been dumbstruck by the song. Although she thought the lyrics were a little cliché, she couldn't help loving the way she integrated them into the music, keeping her voice gentle and sweet throughout the piece, and always strumming the right notes into her guitar. With that much talent, Paula McGuire could make even the silliest of love songs seem like masterpieces.

"What do you think? Is it as bad as you thought it would be, or worse?" Paula asked her.

"I'm sure she loves it as much as I do, Paula," Martin said.

"Your dad's got it right, Paula. You seem like a promising musician, and if you could move past the subject of breakups, perhaps you could get somewhere with your talent," Joan commented.

"That's not supposed to be a love song. It's supposed to be about overcoming grief," Paula said.

"Either way, it's not too bad," Joan said. "In fact, you should try giving Sharron lessons someday, if not form your own band."

Sharron then nudged Joan's shoulder and reminded her of the shortage of time. Joan nodded, and turning to Paula again, she said, "We have to get going now. I'm expected back quite soon. And before I can forget, here are your records. Hope you and your dad enjoy them. " She then handed the records over to Paula.

"T hanks a lot. But would you mind telling me who you are before leaving?" Paula asked.

"Sure. The name's Joan Lennox, and this is my friend Sharron Stevens. What about your own friend over there?"

"That's Gina Harris. She's a little uneasy with people she's meeting for the first time," Paula said, as Gina turned around and gave them a quick wave with an awkward smile on her face.

"Nice meeting you all, including you, Mr. McGuire. Hope you can get better someway," Joan said.

"Have a good day, Joan. We enjoyed your company a great deal," Martin said.

Paula gave Joan a quick handshake, thinking this would be the last time she'd see her. "So long, Joan. Hope you don't get into too much trouble for skipping school."

"Who said anything about skipping? I had important work to get done today. Either way, hope all goes well for you too. And don't forget what I said about your talent."

"I won't," Paula said. And as Gina and Sharron gave their own farewells, she assumed this would be her biggest takeaway from meeting Joan, and she would later find out that she wasn't wrong in thinking so.