Paul McCartney gave up his private jet for a 102-year-old WWII vet to reunite with a wartime lover — but what happened after became Paul’s own birthday gift… Mr. Harold, a 102-year-old veteran, wanted to fly to France to meet his long-lost wartime love. Paul gave up his jet. A week later, Harold FaceTimed from Paris, inviting Paul to his 103rd birthday — with a gift: a WWII map signed by Paul’s own grandfather. FULL STORY BELOW 

Paul McCartney gave up his private jet for a 102-year-old WWII vet to reunite with a wartime lover — but what happened after became Paul’s own birthday gift… Mr. Harold, a 102-year-old veteran, wanted to fly to France to meet his long-lost wartime love. Paul gave up his jet. A week later, Harold FaceTimed from Paris, inviting Paul to his 103rd birthday — with a gift: a WWII map signed by Paul’s own grandfather. FULL STORY BELOW

 

On a quiet June morning, just days before his own birthday, Paul McCartney found himself doing something unexpected: canceling his private jet trip. Not for weather or scheduling conflicts — but for love. Not his own, but that of a 102-year-old WWII veteran named Harold Bennett.

 

Harold, a sharp, witty Englishman with a walking cane carved from the wood of a Lancaster bomber, had one last wish: to fly to Paris and reunite with a woman he hadn’t seen since 1944. Her name was Colette, and they had met when Harold was stationed near the French countryside during the liberation of France. She was 19, he was 22, and for a few fleeting months, they shared dances, secrets, and promises under a war-torn sky.

 

They lost touch after the war. Colette married. Harold did too. Life moved on — but he never forgot her. And after learning she was widowed and still alive in Paris, he made it his mission to see her again. There was just one problem: there were no commercial flights available in time for Colette’s 100th birthday party — the event Harold had been invited to. He needed a miracle.

 

That miracle came in the form of Paul McCartney.

 

Paul had just wrapped rehearsals for a private benefit concert in New York and was preparing to fly home to London aboard his jet. But when he heard about Harold’s story through a mutual friend involved in veteran affairs, Paul made a quick decision.

 

“He’s got to go,” Paul reportedly said. “Let him take the jet. I’ll find another way.”

 

With a small crew and Harold’s granddaughter Lucy in tow, the jet was re-routed to Normandy, where Harold insisted on visiting the old fields of battle one last time, before continuing on to Paris.

 

A week later, Paul was back in London, quietly celebrating his 82nd birthday when a FaceTime call lit up his phone. It was Harold, calling from a balcony in Montmartre, champagne in hand, Colette beside him. The two looked like time had never passed.

 

“She remembered the waltz we danced to,” Harold beamed. “She still had the record.”

 

The call ended with Harold inviting Paul to *his* 103rd birthday next year in Normandy. “I’ve got a gift for you,” Harold said. “Something I’ve been meaning to give back to your family.”

 

It turned out that while visiting a military museum in Caen during his stop in Normandy, Harold had found something extraordinary: an original WWII military map, hand-marked by officers for the 1944 allied push. In the corner was a signature: J. McCartney — Paul’s grandfather, who served in the British Army’s cartography unit during the war.

 

Harold had kept the map after the war, not realizing the connection. Only after seeing a wartime photo of Paul’s grandfather (shared by a veteran’s group in advance of the Paris trip) did the name click.

 

“I couldn’t believe it,” Harold said. “It was like history handed itself back.”

 

Paul was stunned. “It was the best birthday present I never saw coming,” he later told friends.

 

As for Harold and Colette? They shared four more days in Paris, walking old neighborhoods and dining at the same café where they first kissed. Colette called it “a miracle wrapped in time.” Harold simply said, “It was worth the wait.”

 

In a world that often moves too fast, one gesture of kindness — a seat on a jet — turned into a reunion seven decades in the making, a love story rekindled, and a piece of family history returned.

 

Sometimes, the greatest gifts don’t come wrapped in ribbons, but in the quiet moments we make possible for others.

 

And for Paul McCartney, it turns out, giving up a flight gave him something far more meaningful — a connection to the past, and a reminder that

love, like music, never truly fades.