“Don’t bring him anymore!” The strange request from an elderly nurse and Michael Jackson’s hidden 10 year friendship.
The story happened in the mid 1980s, when Michael was at the height of fame after the success of Thriller. While everyone thought he only cared about music and major projects, Michael called Bob Thomas, a Hollywood journalist and the author of the famous biography of Walt Disney, to ask a very special question:
“Hello Bob, this is Michael. Do you think Hazel George is still alive?”
Hazel George was not a celebrity. She was Disney’s longtime nurse, one of the people who had worked very closely with Walt Disney and preserved many memories of him.
Bob Thomas later found Hazel. She had retired and was living near the Disney area in Burbank. When Michael heard the news, he immediately said:
“I’d love to talk to her. Can you arrange it?”
A few days later, Michael personally picked Bob up in a limousine and went with him to Hazel’s small bungalow.
It is hard to imagine that scene: one of the most famous stars on the planet taking the time to visit a retired elderly woman, simply because he wanted to hear her tell stories about Walt Disney.
When they met, Hazel was already old, and her memory was no longer as sharp as before. Bob had to bring along old tape recordings he had used while writing Walt Disney’s biography to help her remember the stories. He played the tapes, brought back each memory, and Hazel continued telling the stories.
And Michael almost said nothing.
The man who made the whole world listen to him that day simply sat quietly and listened to someone else. No performing. No becoming the center of the room. He listened closely to every story about Walt Disney like a child being told a fairy tale.
Perhaps Michael loved Disney not only because of amusement parks or the feeling of childhood. He loved the people who had created that world. He wanted to understand Walt Disney through the memories of those who had once been beside him, not only through books, newspapers, or documentaries.
When the meeting ended, Hazel looked at Michael and said something full of affection:
“Come back and see me, and don’t bring him.”
She meant that next time Michael should come back, but not bring Bob with him.
And Michael really did come back.
According to Bob Thomas, for nearly ten years after that, Michael often visited Hazel. He brought her classical music CDs or sent flowers to her home, until she passed away on March 12, 1996.
If it had been only one meeting, it could have been curiosity. But keeping in touch for nearly ten years with an elderly Disney nurse was a different story. It was sincere care and a quiet friendship.
Michael Jackson could live among the biggest stages in the world, but he was always drawn to small places that held memories. A bungalow in Burbank. A woman who had once worked beside Walt Disney. Old stories that he still wanted to hear with all his respect.
To the world, Michael Jackson was the King of Pop.
But in that small house that day, he was simply a person sitting quietly, listening to memories of Disney with all his gentleness.
