Remembering George Michael

Hi loves,

First of all – merry Christmas little angels! I hope you have a wonderful and magical day, you all deserve it so much. 🎅🏼🎄🎁☃️❄️❤️

A bit of a different post for today. If you didn’t already know (though you may if you’ve seen this post), I’m absolutely in awe of George Michael and have been ever since I was young. It came mostly from my Dad, he always had George’s songs playing in the car or on the record player when we were at home, not to mention when we found all of my Dad’s old Wham! vinyls in the loft and I was so happy I could hardly contain myself.

Exactly one year ago today – Christmas day, George passed away at his home in South Oxfordshire. It was around 7/8pm (maybe later) when all of the news stations started breaking the news, I remember I was sat in my room, writing actually, it was completely dark outside and the day had nearly ended, the festivities were over and everyone was finally taking a long rest after what had been a busy few weeks, as Christmas always is.

The next thing I know, my dad calls me from the bottom of the stairs, I appear at the top and he just looks at me and says “George Michael is dead.” I stare at him and he beckons for me to come downstairs because they were releasing it all on the news, and I literally couldn’t believe my eyes. I sat there in shock, in absolute silence. His death wasn’t tragic or suspicious, it was peaceful in fact, he passed away at home, in bed, but the fact he was gone was incomprehensible to me. I couldn’t believe we’d never get to hear his voice singing, or speaking ever again. He was an incredibly intelligent and open man, I could watch interviews of his for hours as he had such a way with words, and always had the greatest things to say –

During this interview he also talks about the police incident where he was caught engaging in a sexual act in a public bathroom by an undercover police officer, the way he talks about this situation and addresses it, telling exactly what happened on the day once again blew me away when I first saw it, though I was not surprised in the slightest as like I said, George was an incredible speaker and his words were always so full of wisdom. You can watch that part of that interview here at 2:06 as I’m unable to embed it into this post.

My heart literally aches because I miss him so much, I don’t and never have believed that you have to have personally known someone in order for you to miss them and wow, I really, really miss this man. I listen to his songs even more now than ever, and I used to listen to them a lot anyway. Whenever I hear them now, I’m filled with so, so much love and sadness because of what an incredible person and artist, this man was. He’s the first ‘celebrity’ (I hate that word) that has had a personal impact on me regarding their death, because normally you hear it on the news and you talk about how much of a shame it is, and then you move on with your life. But like I said – I felt like I knew him, he’s always been such a big part of my life growing up because he’s one of the main things that reminds me of my Dad, and that makes it hurt just that little but more.

I wanted to take this opportunity to actually share how much I love George, and to give a little reminder that he will obviously never, ever be forgotten. An incredibly wise, intellectually precise and beautiful soul, he had so much to teach us and I could’ve listened to him for hours, even if you don’t like his music or never grew up listening to it – with younger people especially I feel like he’s sometimes overlooked – please just watch some interviews, even if it’s just the Oprah ones I’ve included in this post, and get to know who he was as a person, because we can all learn so much from him.

He was also an incredibly selfless man, he anonymously donated millions of pounds to charity throughout his whole life, and this revelation only really came to light after his death, because when he was here, he wanted it to remain anonymous. A few examples of this are –

• He saw on television that a lady needed £15,000 for IVF treatment, George then phoned the show the next day and secretly gave the donation.
• He volunteered at a homeless shelter and asked that the other people volunteering there not to mention that he was doing it.
• He gave 1000 free concert tickets to AKH hospital workers that helped him get over pneumonia.
• He played a free Christmas concert for the nurses who had cared for his dying mother.
• He gave all proceeds from Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me to Aids Hospice London Lighthouse and Rainbow Trust children’s charity.
• He gave the royalties from Last Christmas / Everything She Wants to Ethiopian Famine Relief.
• He anonymously gave a stranger in a cafe £25,000 after overhearing her crying about her debt.
• He donated £50,000 to Sport Relief when David Walliams swam the English Channel in order to raise money.
• He anonymously donated the royalties from his number one single Jesus To A Child to Childline.
• He anonymously tipped a barmaid £5,000 after learning she was a student nurse in debt.

I could go on and on, but then I would be here forever, these are also only a few of the documented gestures he’s made where his identity was discovered to asked to have been kept hidden, so think about how many actual anonymous donations he probably made on top of this. To close this post I’ll leave you with the way that George asked to be remembered, and the way I hope in which we can all remember him. I know that I will.

Faith Tour 1988 – All rights reserved by Copyright owners.

“As a great singer songwriter… from a period of time we won’t be seeing again, like Prince or Madonna… As one of the last big stars in the sense that there was a certain glamour to it. And someone who had some kind of integrity.” 

All my love,

Chloe .xx