Lucy Vodden, inspiration behind Beatles' legendary song, dies

The pretty blonde lady was gravely ill and had been treated for the life-threatening disease lupus for more than five years at St. Thomas' Hospital in London.

Lupus is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks body’s own tissues, causing immense pain and organ breakdown.

After battling the disease bravely for years, Vodden has passed away, the hospital said Monday.

How the legend was born
Vodden’s relation to the British rock band The Beatles dates back to 1966 when she was studying at a nursery school in Weybridge, Surrey where John Lennon's son Julian was also in her class.

She came to the attention of the Beatles when her classmate Julian, then 4, drew her picture in the nursery school and brought the pic home to show his father, explaining it as "That's Lucy in the sky with diamonds."

The elder Lennon then used the phrase as a springboard for a psychedelic masterpiece that became a centerpiece on the ground-breaking 1967 album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".

The legendary song was long associated with LSD use.

Although Vodden enjoyed a long relationship with Beatles, she apparently was not happy with her link to "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

"I don't relate to the song, to that type of song," Vodden told The Associated Press in June. "As a teenager, I made the mistake of telling a couple of friends at school that I was the Lucy in the song and they said, 'No, it's not you, my parents said it's about drugs.' And I didn't know what LSD was at the time, so I just kept it quiet, to myself."

Julian-July resumed childhood friendship
It has been reported that Julian Lennon reached out to his childhood friend in recent months as he came to know about Vodden's illness through his personal assistant, who knows Vodden's sister.

In order to help her cope with the disease, Julian, who lives in France, sent Vodden flowers and vouchers so she could buy plants at a gardening center near her home in Surrey in southeast England, since working in the garden was her passion. He frequently sent her text messages in an effort to strengthen her spirits.

"I wasn't sure at first how to approach her," Julian told the AP in June. "I wanted at least to get a note to her. Then I heard she had a great love of gardening, and I thought I'd help with something she's passionate about, and I love gardening too. I wanted to do something to put a smile on her face."

"Julian got in touch with me out of the blue, when he heard how ill I was, and he said he wanted to do something for me," Vodden, who was married to Ross Vodden, had recently said.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Julian Lennon and his mother, Cynthia Lennon, has released a statement in which she said that they are "shocked and saddened" by Vodden's death.