halpinhope's Blogs

24 years ago today, little 5 year-old me came home from having dinner at a friends house to see my sister A crying at the kitchen table. My bother M was blaring Sheer Heart Attack from his room and my mum and dad were quietly sitting in the living room holding each other. I wasn't the most observant of kids to be honest but I figured something was wrong. When i asked them, my mum with tears in her eyes told me that Freddie Mercury had been sick and died. I didn't really understand what she meant. Death meant nothing to me, I'd never lost anyone at that time and the idea of someone going away and never coming back was so completely alien. I truly felt like someone had punched me in the stomach, I was winded. To put my family into context - my family was a Queen family. My Mum, my Dad, My three older brothers and my older sister and me all loved Queen. They bought all the albums, went to all the concerts they could get to, my brother L had a VHS tape of Queen music videos he'd recorded off of the telly. Whenever we went on a family car journey we'd always ALWAYS sing Fat Bottomed Girls together. Just that Halloween I went to school dressed in white jeans and vest, a yellow jacket, slicked back hair and mustache painted on with my mums eyeliner. Queen and Freddie in particular meant a lot to us. It took me a few days to process but when i saw the news and the headlines in the papers it slowly sank in - that this man, this talented brilliant amazing man who'd brought so much joy to me and my family wasn't on the planet anymore. Still not a week goes by where i don't listen to AT LEAST one Queen album in its entirety.

24 years ago today Freddie Mercury lost his battle with AIDS. RIP Freddie. Mr Fahrenheit. Mr Bad Guy. Mr Mercury.