Post by MaryAnn Layton on Aug 9, 2010 17:44:47 GMT -5
I have an incredible little story to share. I've been researching articles on all things Michael (ATM) and came across a very obscure mention by an author who didn't even include his name. All I know is he lives in Australia and the name of the article is The Fandom Phenomenon.
Here is Loretta's story of how Michael Jackson changed her life. And about Michael's secret message to her... NOW WE KNOW! Please comment!
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Twelve years later, there's one fan from Fanclub I particularly wonder about. Her fandom was extraordinary. She spoke about her idol with such passion and conviction, and she even managed to get up onstage at a Sydney concert in 1996 and dance with him. In the intervening years, so much had happened to her idol, and none of it was good - he'd been in a court case involving allegations of child molestation, he'd been criticised for dangling his own child over a hotel balcony, his stalled career and money problems had been pilloried by the media and then, on June 25 last year, he died of a heart attack at 50.
Yes, Loretta Tolnay was a Michael Jackson fan. Back then she told me that she would quite literally take a bullet for him, because "in the bigger picture and the greater scheme of things, I'm more dispensable than he is". But that was a long time ago. Would the light of fandom have dimmed in the intervening years?
No, as it turns out. Tolnay is now a 37-year-old learning and development consultant. The night before Jackson died, Tolnay went to bed happy. She had just found out she was pregnant with her second child. The next morning her phone rang with the bad news about her idol.
"My first reaction was disbelief, then horror when I realised it was true," she says. "I sobbed every day for weeks. I put on my work face and went into the office, but I kept running into the bathroom in tears. I couldn't control it. It was terrible."
In the following weeks, Jackson's music was played on the radio more than it had been in years. Normally Tolnay would have been happy and proud of that, but something had changed for her.
"There's a weight in my heart whenever a song of his comes on now," she says. "It makes me realise he's no longer with us and there's going to be no new music and I'll never get to see him on stage again. Unfortunately, I just can't separate the music from the sadness at the moment. I'm a grown woman with a little family, but it still affects me so much. I hope that will pass."
Tolnay and her husband like to say they met through a mutual friend. Eduardo Bolton was also a Jackson fan, who happened to work at the Sheraton on the Park when the star was staying there on his 1996 tour. Bolton wasn't rostered to work the day that Jackson was arriving but worked for free so he could carry the star's bags to his room. A year later, Tolnay was at the hotel and on a whim decided to inquire about having a look at the presidential suite on the pretext that she was planning a function - in reality she wanted to see the place where Jackson married Debbie Rowe in 1996. The person on the desk that night was Bolton, who immediately recognised her as the girl who danced on stage a year beforehand.
The two started dating and in 2003 they decided to marry. Tolnay sent a letter to Jackson. She included photos of the two of them on stage and wrote, "I just wanted to let you know that that moment where I danced with you onstage was the catalyst for two people meeting, and we're getting married this year."
Later that year, the compilation album Number Ones was released. There in the liner notes it says: "'L'" and 'E' - to the future with all my love. Love, Michael Jackson."
"I was so proud and happy that before he died, he knew his life had such a huge impact on these two people all the way around the other side of the world," she says. "If it wasn't for him and our shared appreciation of him, Eduardo and I would never have met. And I was glad that Michael got to hear a good story from some fans, instead of all these people trying to extort money from him or bring him down. He deserved to know that."
In 2008, when Tolnay gave birth to her first child, she dearly wanted to call him Michael. Unfortunately, her married name is Bolton. Even fans have limits. She settled for Miguel.
Here is Loretta's story of how Michael Jackson changed her life. And about Michael's secret message to her... NOW WE KNOW! Please comment!
++++++++
Twelve years later, there's one fan from Fanclub I particularly wonder about. Her fandom was extraordinary. She spoke about her idol with such passion and conviction, and she even managed to get up onstage at a Sydney concert in 1996 and dance with him. In the intervening years, so much had happened to her idol, and none of it was good - he'd been in a court case involving allegations of child molestation, he'd been criticised for dangling his own child over a hotel balcony, his stalled career and money problems had been pilloried by the media and then, on June 25 last year, he died of a heart attack at 50.
Yes, Loretta Tolnay was a Michael Jackson fan. Back then she told me that she would quite literally take a bullet for him, because "in the bigger picture and the greater scheme of things, I'm more dispensable than he is". But that was a long time ago. Would the light of fandom have dimmed in the intervening years?
No, as it turns out. Tolnay is now a 37-year-old learning and development consultant. The night before Jackson died, Tolnay went to bed happy. She had just found out she was pregnant with her second child. The next morning her phone rang with the bad news about her idol.
"My first reaction was disbelief, then horror when I realised it was true," she says. "I sobbed every day for weeks. I put on my work face and went into the office, but I kept running into the bathroom in tears. I couldn't control it. It was terrible."
In the following weeks, Jackson's music was played on the radio more than it had been in years. Normally Tolnay would have been happy and proud of that, but something had changed for her.
"There's a weight in my heart whenever a song of his comes on now," she says. "It makes me realise he's no longer with us and there's going to be no new music and I'll never get to see him on stage again. Unfortunately, I just can't separate the music from the sadness at the moment. I'm a grown woman with a little family, but it still affects me so much. I hope that will pass."
Tolnay and her husband like to say they met through a mutual friend. Eduardo Bolton was also a Jackson fan, who happened to work at the Sheraton on the Park when the star was staying there on his 1996 tour. Bolton wasn't rostered to work the day that Jackson was arriving but worked for free so he could carry the star's bags to his room. A year later, Tolnay was at the hotel and on a whim decided to inquire about having a look at the presidential suite on the pretext that she was planning a function - in reality she wanted to see the place where Jackson married Debbie Rowe in 1996. The person on the desk that night was Bolton, who immediately recognised her as the girl who danced on stage a year beforehand.
The two started dating and in 2003 they decided to marry. Tolnay sent a letter to Jackson. She included photos of the two of them on stage and wrote, "I just wanted to let you know that that moment where I danced with you onstage was the catalyst for two people meeting, and we're getting married this year."
Later that year, the compilation album Number Ones was released. There in the liner notes it says: "'L'" and 'E' - to the future with all my love. Love, Michael Jackson."
"I was so proud and happy that before he died, he knew his life had such a huge impact on these two people all the way around the other side of the world," she says. "If it wasn't for him and our shared appreciation of him, Eduardo and I would never have met. And I was glad that Michael got to hear a good story from some fans, instead of all these people trying to extort money from him or bring him down. He deserved to know that."
In 2008, when Tolnay gave birth to her first child, she dearly wanted to call him Michael. Unfortunately, her married name is Bolton. Even fans have limits. She settled for Miguel.