Best Dad in the World

This was a side of Michael’s personality that, until last night, may have remained unknown to many people around the world. But Paris’s moving and heartfelt words—Michael’s daughter—made everyone stop and think: Michael was a father. Amid all the life-and-death rush to prepare for a grand memorial for a legend, the strict measures taken to ensure the safety of the ceremony, the intense, breathless competition among media outlets to cover every single moment and the heavy, painful performances of the previous night, Paris Jackson’s pure, twenty-second speech praising her father was the emotional peak that left everyone stunned at the end of the grand celebration for the King of Pop. The 11-year-old Paris, at a ceremony that had frozen several hundred million people worldwide in place as they said goodbye to a music legend, called Michael Jackson “Dad.” It was an intensely emotional and deeply human moment. All three of his children—12-year-old Michael Joseph Jr., known as Prince Michael I; 11-year-old Paris Michael Katherine; and Prince Michael II, or 7-year-old Blanket—were taking part in an official, public ceremony for the first time, with no covering at all. Before that, Michael had always covered their faces with masks or scarves to protect their privacy. But last night, inside the Staples Center in Los Angeles, before a crowd of over 20,000 people, and for hundreds of millions of viewers around the world watching the event live, there was no sign of any covering. As the children sat on stage during the two-hour ceremony, alongside their grandmother Katherine, and with their aunts and uncles in the front row facing the stage and the golden coffin, drowned in their father’s flowers, they had performed together on stage to sing We Are The World along with the other stars present at the memorial.

During the performance of this song, on a large television screen mounted above the stage, symbols representing peace and friendship—just as the song’s main theme suggests—were displayed. Kenny Ortega, the director of Michael’s never-to-be-seen London summer concerts, said that the presentation of such symbols was Michael’s own idea. Michael Jr., dressed like the other men in the Jackson family in a black suit and a yellow tie, endured the ceremony alongside his family members. The 7-year-old Blanket held Michael Jackson’s doll in his arms and also had a memorial booklet prepared specifically for this event, distributed among everyone in the hall. The booklet looked very beautiful and polished, with many stunning photos and texts written in memory of Michael, quoting his relatives and close ones. Paris, wearing a black dress with white stripes, played with a black leather bag she held while the other family members were busy speaking into the microphone about her father. And then, all at once—along with the family’s murmurs on stage, which promised the arrival of a little girl whose biggest challenge in life, until that moment, had been being surrounded by several reporters and paparazzi photographers—an excited silence filled the air. Paris carefully stepped out from the ring of family members who had been rushing to lower the height of the microphone. The little girl stood between Uncle Randy and Auntie Janette, and with a weak voice began: “I wanted to say…” “Speak up, sweetheart—speak up.” Auntie Janette tried to give the girl courage, pushed her long hair back from her shoulder, and stood closer to her. Paris put her hand behind her neck, then wrapped it around the microphone and started again: “Since the day I was born, Dad was the best father anyone could ever imagine.” Her little girl voice broke. Auntie Rebbie and Uncle Marlon came closer to calm her. Paris squeezed her eyes shut and pressed the microphone in her hand. Her red nails curled around the microphone as she fought back tears, leaning her neck against her other hand: “I just wanted to say that I love him—so much.” And then, in a burst of tears, she collapsed into Auntie Janette’s arms.

“It’s okay, my dear. It’s okay.” Prince rested his head on Janette’s shoulder, and the entire family held one another in a tight embrace.

And suddenly, Michael Jackson was not a legend, not an otherworldly artist, and not a pawn for scandalous tabloids and rumor-mongering. He was a loving, devoted father who had left behind three children who had adored him. He was a “Dad.” Source: eMJey / AP