I was 11, middle of summer break. My older brother, our friends, and I were playing basketball outside on a hot day. One of the girls at the court got a call from her older sister and suddenly said, “Michael Jackson died.”
None of us believed her. We brushed it off like she had to be joking. There were no iPhones or social media back then, so it wasn’t easy to check.
Eventually we all started heading home. When my brother and I got there, we knocked on the door and my mom rushed to open it. She looked shaken, like something was seriously wrong, and the first thing she said was, “Guys… Michael Jackson is dead.”
That’s when it hit. We were in complete disbelief. We had been huge fans since we were kids, and what made it even crazier was we were actually planning to go to his *This Is It* tour. It didn’t feel real. It still doesn’t sometimes.
It’s one of the most vivid memories I have. Honestly, it felt like losing someone in the family.
Where were you when you heard the news?