Part 1: Rose Fine: Michael's Childhood Tutor

Michael Jackson: It left a terrible scar on me.
Shmuley Boteach: What?
MJ: Turbulence and being up there and thinking you were not going to live.
SB: Remember that story you told me about your Jewish tutor?
MJ: Rose Fine?
SB: You told me once on the phone that she used to say to you that if there was a nun on the plane that everyone was going to die.
MJ: She said, "We're okay, we're sitting on the plan and now we have so much faith. I have checked... there isn't a nun on the plane." I always believed that.
SB: Do you still look out for that nun?
MJ: I think about it! I never see a nun on the plane. She (Rose Fine) helped me out a lot because she held my hand and cuddled me. After the show I would run to the room. She would always say to me, "The door's open," and she would leave her door open.
SB: Is it possible if someone is not a biological parent to love a child as much as you love your own child? Do you love children as much as you love Prince and Paris?
MJ: Absolutely.
SB: I have always noticed one of the most impressive things about you is when I say something like, "Prince and Paris are beautiful," you always say, "No. All children are beautiful." You won't let me get away with just praising Prince and Paris.
MJ: They are to me. I see beauty in all children... they are all beautiful to me. It is so beautiful and I love them all-equally. I used to have arguments about it with people who didn't agree with me. They say you should love your own more.
SB: Rose Fine, although she wasn't your biological mother, was able to show you a lot of motherly affection?
MJ: And boy did I need it. I was never with my mother when I was little, very seldom, and I had a wonderful mother. I see her as an angel, and I was always gone, always on tour doing back-to-back concerts, all over America, overseas, clubs, just always gone. That helped me a lot. We took care of her (Rose Fine) until the day she died, Janet and myself. She just died recently.
SB: Do you think she should be mentioned in the context of our children's initiative?
MJ: Please do. She needs to be remembered.
SB: How old was she?
MJ: She would never tell me her age. I think she was in her nineties. She used to say, "When I retire I will tell you my age." But when she retired she still wouldn't tell me. She was with us all the way from the very first professional tour of The Jackson 5 until I was eighteen. The tour was after we broke big-the first hit single. She would always have the power, like some of the concerts would start late and she would always have the power to stop the show because of the Board of Education would say, "You kids cannot go past your time legally." She would always let it go on. She couldn't hurt the audience.
SB: And then she would teach you during the day?
MJ: Aha.
SB: Regular subjects? Mathematics? English? She taught all five of you together?
MJ: Yes together, three hours. She taught Janet, all of them.
SB: Tell me a bit more about her.
MJ: Yes, Rose died this year. Janet and myself, we paid for her nurse and hospital care, and if her television broke down or the electricity, or there was anything wrong with her house, we would cover her bills. Now her husband is sick so I am taking care of him, and because we felt she is our mother and you take care of your mother.
SB: You rally felt that?
MJ: Absolutely. She was more then a tutor and I was so angry at myself that when she died I was far, far away. I couldn't get there. I was in Switzerland and Evvy (Michael's secretary) called me on the phone and told me that she was dead. I went, "What? I am in Switzerland. I can't..." It made me angry, but I did all I could. It also hurt when I cam to the door to see her and I went, "Mrs. Fine, its Michael," and she would go, "You're not Michael." I would say, "It's Michael." And she would say, "Don't say you are Michael. You are not Michael." That kinda sets into the brain and they don't recognize you. That hurts so much. Growing old is not always pretty. It is sad.
SB: How would a child deal with something like that? You have tried to retain your youth, your playfulness, all the things that we talk about. Do you see it as a curse, growing old?
MJ: In a way, when the body starts to break down. But when old people return to childhood, I have seen them, they become very playful and childlike. I relate very well to old people because they have those qualities of a child. Whenever I go to a hospital I always find a way to sneak into another room to talk to the old people. I just did it two days ago because I was in the hospital and they were so sweet and they just welcome you like a child does. They say, "Come in," and we talk. They are simple and sweet.
SB: So life is almost like a circle. You start as a child and then you go trough this adult phase, which isn't always healthy. There are a lot of negative things about it, and you come back, in elderly age, to that innocence, you become a lot more playful. You have a lot more time they way children have. I guess that's why greandparents get along so well with their grandchildren.
MJ: Old people and children are very much alike. They are carefree and play-free and simple and sweet. It is just a spiritual feeling. I don't visit old people's homes as much as I have the orphanages. A lot of them get Alzheimer's and they don't recognize. But I have a great relationship with older people. I love talking to older people and they can tell you stories about when they were kids and how the world was in those days and I love that. There was an old Jewish man in New York a long time ago who said to me, "Always be thankful for your talent and always give to the poor people. Help other people. When I was a little boy my father said to me, 'We are going to take these clothes and these pieces of bread and we are going to wrap them up and you run down the street and up the stairs and knock on the people's door and place it in font of the door and run!' I said, 'Why did you tell us to run?' He said ,"Because when they open the door I don't want them to feel the shame. They have pride. That is real charity." I have never forgotten that (story of the old man). That's sweet, isn't it? And he did that as a little boy all the time.
SB: So have you tried to do charitable acts that no one knows about?
MJ: Yes, without waving the flag. He (the man Michael is quoting above) is saying real charity is giving from the heart without taking credit, and when he ran they didn't know who had left it. It was like God had dropped it there, you know? It was so beautiful. I never forgot that story. I was around eleven when I was told that. He was old, really sweet, a Jewish man, I remember.
SB: Was she (Rose Fine) a committed Jew? Was she observant of her faith? Or was she more of a secular Jew?
MJ: What does that mean?
SB: Did she refrain from traveling on the Sabbath, did she eat only kosher food, things like that?
MJ: Not that I remember. She taught me a lot about the Jewish way. I don't know if she ate the kosher food, but I always felt so bad for her because her son suffered so badly. He was a doctor who died early and the day he died, I remember how deeply dark and sad she was. He was a wonderful doctor, went to Harvard, and he was tall and handsome. He had some kind of brain tumor. I can't imagine losing your own child like that, let alone losing any child.
SB: Did you find out anything about Judaism from Rose Fine?
MJ: She taught me about the Jewish culture and I will never forget when I was a little kid we landed in Germany, she got real quiet. I said, "What's wrong, Miss Fine?" You know how kids can tell when something is wrong with their mother? She said, "I don't like it." I said, "Why?" She said,"A lot of people suffered here." That's when I first learned about the concentration camps, through her, because I didn't know nothing about it. I'll never forget that feeling. She said she felt cold there, she could feel it. What a sweet person. She taught me the wonderful world of books and reading and I wouldn't be the same person if it wasn't for her. I owe a lot to her and that's why I am dedicating the new album to her.
SB: Do you think she saw you as her son?
MJ: She called me her son. Whenever you go on the plane you see these seven little black kids and a black father, all got big Afros, would stop her and go, "Who are you?" She would say, "I'm the mother." She would say it every time and they would let her go. Sweet story. She was special. I needed her
SB: Did she show you unconditional love?
MJ: Yes.
SB: So you think unconditional love can be shown even by two people who are not related by blood?
MJ: Oh my God, yes, of course. I think I leaned it thought her and I have seen it and I have experienced it. It doesn't matter with blood or race or creed or color. Love is love and it breaks all boundaries and you just see it right away. I see it in children's eyes. When I see children, I see helpless little puppies. They are so sweet. How could anybody hurt them? They are so wonderful.
SB: She died this year so that means you have to deal with grief. Who does a child deal with grief? A child lives in a paradise, a perfect world that we are trying to describe. Adults are later largely corrupted thought their wars and their jealousy and their cynicism, and suddenly along comes death and even a child has to deal with a death. So how do you deal with death? And how does a child deal with death?
MJ: Yes, I have had to deal with death and it is very difficult.



Well that is the End of Part One. I'm going to skip part two and do that last.
I'm going to Part Three:Fame In Adulthood.

Thank you for reading, whoever is reading.
Remember to spread Michael's Message xoxo

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Rachel Roo