‘BEST FATHER EVER’
A host of the world’s biggest stars gathered for a glittering memorial ceremony in Los Angeles to pay an emotional tribute to Jackson.
Fans came from Naples, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico and from across the US to be a part of one of the biggest and most emotional public memorials in modern times.
Even without the prized tickets to get inside the Staples Centre for the memorial, thousands of fans held each other and sang and danced nearby in a mixture of mourning and celebration of the life and unique talent of Michael Jackson.
Because of the anticipated hundreds of thousands of fans expected to congregate for the memorial, there had been worries about a melee erupting and over 30,000 police officers were on duty, in the virtually locked down centre of downtown LA. But the atmosphere was sombre and emotional, the genuine grief in the air palpable. In the end, far fewer than the anticipated 250,000 turned out at the event, tuning in instead on TV, radio and the internet.
Tears flowed down the face of 24-year-old Pierre Legot from Montreal, outside the Staples centre as the rose covered gold coffin was carried into the venue.
“Even without a ticket, I felt the least I could do in thanks to Michael was to come and pay my own tribute to him by showing up,” he said.
All morning, fans calmly waited for the memorial to begin, hundreds of them waiting there since dawn for the cortege. Dressed in faux Jackson outfits and T-shirts, they signed the enormous wall poster of Michael Jackson and shared stories of how his music was part of all of their lives.
The grief-stricken fans focused on the joy the music gave them, and when a handful of protesters present shouted about what they called “the waste of spending $4m (about €2.9m) of California taxpayers’ money on the funeral of a paedophile”, they were quietly ignored by the mourning fans who refused to engage.
