Stop fishing for likes

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George Michael was a celebrity very close to my heart. I may not have been his number one fan, but I have been raised on his music. My mum was indeed what you would describe as his number one fan, and has been since she was a young girl. She raised my sisters and I on his music, both with Wham and as a solo artist. Me and her went to see him in concert together. He was a big enough influence in my life that one of my first teddies (that I am still proud to own!) earned himself the name "George Michaels".

So yes. I was more than a little upset when I heard about him passing away, on Christmas Day of all days, as was my mum, and both of us had a little cry watching some of his music videos and trying to get over the fact that such a huge part of our musical lives was now gone forever. My mum was near inconsolable, bless her heart, and it feels like a very big loss.

But my grief has quickly been tarnished- tarnished with anger. Fury, in fact. Because since his death, a number of people have come forward and exposed these 'secret' acts that George Michael did to benefit other peoples lives- such as donating money to a woman so she could receive IVF treatment, paying off a young girls student loan, helping out at a homeless shelter and many more heartwarming acts. All of these are lovely to hear but all of them are followed with a similar tag line, 'he didn't want anyone to know this' or 'he wanted this kept secret'.

Okay... so... why the fuck are you telling the world? 

 It doesn't matter if he's no longer with us, if he wanted this kept a secret, why do you think it changes now that he's dead? I feel like a lot of people coming out with these kinds of stories would say something along the lines of "I want people to remember him for the lovely person he was" which is great, but at the same time, he wanted these acts kept a secret. I'm pretty sure this doesn't change just because he's dead, and I'm almost 100% sure you're sharing them for media attention/retweets/likes.

It seems awful to me to expose someones secrets simply because they're no longer present and able to deter you from doing so, and if I was George Michael's family, I would be suing. These were simple acts of kindness to him, I'm sure of that, and if he wanted it kept secret, he had his reasons. Now, through no choice of his own, his secrets are being exposed and its breaking my heart. I hope he comes back and haunts all of these individuals for giving his secrets away all for the sake of retweets and publicity.

Someone has died. This isn't about you. This isn't about social media. This is about him. It's about celebrating his life- the parts of which he deigned to share with us. Not the secrets he entrusted to few and are now being exposed by many.

Rest in peace, George. You were a legend and meant so much to a lot of people- particularly my mum.

Love from,
Florence Grace

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