29 years ago today we lost the legend that is Freddie Mercury, I only discovered Queen's music after the film came out but I instantly fell down the Queen rabbit hole and I don't want to leave. Freddie, you are so missed and I so often wonder what life and music would be like today if you were still around. RIP
On a happier note Happy Birthday to the gorgeous Gwilym Lee our Brian May clone.
They say that bad things happen in three's and that seems to be the case for the father-daughter duo in the weeks of October. The first thing was at the beginning of the month.
One thing Amelia loves more than anything is playing hide and seek with the cats, by hide and seek it really means the cats minding their own business in different spots around the house while Amelia finds them.
With Jim in Ireland for the month and Freddie on an important phone call with Miami, she is amusing herself trying to find them. Like always Romeo follows her around so he was easy to find, she took her time but eventually, she found all of the cats but Tom and Jerry.
She toddles to Jerry's bedroom last and finds them both curled up together on the windowsill, "Found you!" she giggles stroking the two cats. But when neither of them reacts or move Amelia frowns, "Jerry? Tom?" She scratches behind Jerry's ear a place that always gets him to at least lift his head without fail but nothing.
Tears sting the corner of Amelia's eyes, Freddie had told no one to disturb him but this is an emergency. Padding downstairs to the music room, where he is taking the phone call, she nervously opens the door and just waits for him to see her.
Freddie was mid-conversation when he noticed her by the door, tears running down her face, "Miami, would you mind holding for a moment?"
"Not at all, is there a problem?"
"Possibly, hold on a minute," Freddie puts the phone on the side and kneels in front of Amelia, "What's the matter sweetheart? Are you hurt?" He looks her over for any sign of injury.
She shakes her head, "Tom and Jerry, not moving."
Freddie picks up the phone again, "Miami, I'm sorry I'm going to have to go, there's something wrong with the cats." Finishing the call the duo go back to Jerry's room.
"See," she points Tom and Jerry are in the same spot, Freddie touches both the cats but instantly feels their cold, stillness. No rise and fall of them breathing, no movement upon being fussed in their favourite spots. Nothing.
He immediately rang the vet's and he is with them in the hour and confirms Freddie's fear that they have passed away. Amelia cries into Freddie's chest and the singer cries too.
She wouldn't let Romeo out of her sight for the rest of the day in fear that something would happen to him too.
Freddie was extremely sad about the lost but he reminds himself that Tom and Jerry lived to a good age and had full luxury in the last years of their lives.
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The second thing happened a few days later. Like most mornings Amelia toddles from her bed to Freddie and Jim's room to see if her dad is awake.
Amelia now sleeps in a toddler bed since she learnt how to climb out of her crib. Wanting to lower the risks of her falling and hurting herself, Freddie brought her the new bed.
She actually no trouble in the new bed, she sleeps through the night with Romeo curled up at the end of her and only comes to Freddie's room if she has a nightmare or in the mornings to wake him up, which is hardly ever before 7:30am.
Reaching on her tiptoes Amelia turns the handle and pushes it open letting Romeo in first before following. Climbing up onto Jim's empty side of the bed, she crawls across to her dad.
"Dada?" she leans over his arm to see his face, Freddie groans but doesn't open his eyes. Frowning she taps the skin of his shoulder, "Da?"
Rolling on his back Freddie tries to open his eyes to see his worried daughter, "I'm okay angel," he coughs, "Just a cold." His head felt like lead, pounding headache and a sore throat.
"Poorly?" she whispers and he nods. Getting off the bed Amelia runs out the bedroom to the stairs. When she reaches the bottom, she toddles to the kitchen where Joe is cutting up some fruit and Phoebe is reading the newspaper, "Ebe!"
Phoebe looks up at the call of his name frowning, "Where's your dad, sweety?"
"Dada poorly." Putting his paper on the counter he lifts her onto his hip and carries the worried girl back upstairs to Freddie's room.
Sitting her on the bed, Phoebe kneels next to the singer, "Freddie?"
"It's just a cold Phoebe but I don't have the energy to move and I don't want Amelia to get ill too."
"Shall I see if either Brian or Roger can take her for a night or two?" Phoebe asks and the singer nods, "Alright, I'll be back in a few minutes."
Phoebe heads back downstairs leaving the two alone. Tentatively Amelia crawls over to her dad and he rolls onto his back, she curls up next to him laying with her head on his shoulder until Phoebe comes back, "So obviously John is away so he's out of the question, I couldn't get hold of Brian but Roger said he'd be here as soon as he can."
The journey from Roger's to Garden Lodge is about an hour so Phoebe uses that time to sort an overnight bag for Amelia and when Roger arrives they have the hard task of getting her to leave Freddie.
For a toddler, Amelia is a bright girl and she knows when someone is ill and worries. She cuddles closer to her dad not wanting to let go, it hurts him to do so but Freddie has to pry her fingers off him, "There's no need to worry sweetheart, I'll be okay in a day or two I just need sleep. But you're going for a sleepover at Uncle Roger's, you'll have fun I promise."
Once her fingers are off Roger lifts the girl off the bed before she can reattach herself, "Come on poppet, we can go see baby Rory." She grumbles burying her face in his neck teddy under her arm and Roger looks back at his friend, "Take as long as you need mate, I don't mind looking after her."
"Thank you, Roger, darling." And with that, they head down to Roger's car.
Amelia's first day and night at the Taylor's she spent most of her time sitting quietly with either Roger or Dominique. It concerned both of them but they put it down to her missing her dad.
They were right because the next day she is her normal bright self again, she went with Dominique to drop Felix at school and when they got back she was watching Roger in his home recording studio.
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The last of the three things happened on Amelia's last day at the Taylor's. Freddie is coming to pick her up soon but at the moment she is sat in the garden watching Felix, Jimmy and Louisa play on the multiplay climbing, swing and slide set that Roger brought for Felix last year.
Felix and Jimmy had told her that she is too little to play on the unit while Louisa is happy on her own on the swing. Sadly both Brian and Roger agreed that she is too little.
Unhappy about this decision Amelia is now sulking on the patio with her teddy watching them. Roger and Brian are working on something in the home studio while Dominique watching some telly and keeping an eye on the kids.
Bored of just watching Amelia toddles towards the playset, I'll show them.
She manages the steps to the slide just fine and enjoys the slide down, she does this a few times before her attention turns to the monkey bars. Even Felix struggles to do the monkey bars alone so for Amelia it should be near impossible.
Instead of going for the bar closer to the ground, Amelia climbs up the steps closer to the highest bar which has a full 4ft drop underneath. Felix and Jimmy are up in the tall tower of the climbing frame so they don't see her climbing the steps.
Setting her teddy to the side to watch her she reaches out for the first bar grabbing it tightly and because of the momentum of pushing her feet off the platform, she manages to grab hold of the second bar.
Wrapping her arms around it for dear life she is now stuck. She manages to wrap her legs around the bar too but that makes it worst, "Elp!" she whimpers.
Meanwhile, in the house, Dominique had just finished feeding Rory when the front door went, "It's open Freddie!" Settling Rory against her shoulder she gets up to greet the singer.
"Hello my dear, blimey she has grown," Freddie coos accepting the blonde baby girl for a hold.
"I know four months old already, I just don't know where the time goes. Are you feeling better?"
"Of course I wouldn't have come if I wasn't cold free. I feel loads better after a good amount of sleep," He chuckles looking around the room, "Where is my angel?"
"I'm glad your feeling better," Dominique smiles, "Milly is out in the garden playing with Felix and Brian's two, I wouldn't usually let her at this time of year but the weather is so warm for October."
"I'll leave her to play for a bit longer then," He doesn't like the fact that she doesn't get the chance to play with children her age to often so when the opportunity arises he's more than happy to leave her playing for longer, "Are the lads in the studio?"
"Where else?" She rolls her eyes taking her daughter back, "please go on through I'm just going to put Rory down for a nap." She heads upstairs while Freddie goes to the studio neither of them aware of the situation brewing outside.
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The first to notice Amelia is Louisa, "Jimmy!" she cries, "Jimmy look!"
Jimmy exits the tower followed by Felix, "Oh no," the latter boy mutters.
"Milly, how did you get on there?" Jimmy calls racing to the platform where the bar is. She doesn't answer him just whimpers, "Stuck."
Neither of the boys can reach her, "Lou, go and get dad, hurry!" Jimmy tells his sister he can see that Amelia's grip is starting to slip.
Racing inside through the empty living room the youngest May burst into the home studio grabbing Brian's hand trying to pull him towards the door, "Daddy, come on!"
Brian kneels in front of his daughter, "Louisa, what's wrong sweetpea?"
"We need to go outside, Milly stuck," the three men move quickly following the girl to the back door.
"How stuck?" Brian asks as they go thinking she just means that Amelia is on one of the platforms or slides and can't get down.
A cry from Amelia and the boys yelling for their dads gets them to the door faster and Freddie's heart lumps in his throat.
Amelia's hands have slipped from the bar and only her feet are holding her up. Brian is the first to run for to the monkey bars followed by the other two but none of them get there in time and Amelia's feet slip.
Hitting the ground Amelia cries out before going quiet, getting to her first Brian turns her over and the girl is unconscious. She has a large bloody gash on her forehead, scraps on her hands and knees but what worries him most is the unnatural angle of Amelia's right arm.
Freddie drops next to him pushing the hair back off Amelia's face, "Amelia, can you hear me, sweetheart?"
"What happened?" Roger demands from the observing children as Dominique runs out the house, "what's going on?"
"I don't know," Felix cries, "We didn't see anything until Louisa shouted for us and Milly was holding onto the bar, we couldn't reach her to get her down."
"That doesn't matter now, Roger go call an ambulance," Brian orders trying to wake Amelia up. Roger rushes back into the house and while he is on the phone Amelia comes around, crying out when she moves her arm.
"Dada?!"
"I'm right here my angel, just don't move your arm," He continues to stroke her hair, brushing away any tears that fall until the paramedics arrive.
The two medics remained very professional despite being greeted by three of the four members of Queen. Freddie went with her in the ambulance and the paramedics informed him that she has an obviously broken arm but she would need a CT scan to check for any brain injures.
Amelia was seen quickly at the hospital her right arm was broken but they realigned the bone setting it in a pink cast.
Her CT scan came back clear but they stitched up her forehead and kept her under observations for a few hours before sending her home.
Despite being told she was okay Freddie couldn't help worrying over the phone to Jim once Amelia was in bed, "The way she fell I'm surprised she didn't injure her brain. It was the scariest moment of my life, I never want to see that again."
"I'm sorry I wasn't there with you," Jim only went once a year to see his family and he was only meant to stay for two weeks but ended up staying the month and now wishes he hadn't, "she's going to be alright though? And her arm will heal in time."
"It's not your fault lovie, you couldn't have known this would happen. Her arm will stay in the cast for six weeks but the upside to her breaking a bone at a young age is that when the bone heals, it's twice as strong as before." Freddie chuckles stroking Delilah's fur, "I can't wait to see you Friday, it's been one hell of a few weeks."
Sorry about Tom and Jerry in beginning but sadly no cat lives forever and though I can't remember where but I'm sure I read somewhere that one of Freddie's cat died a few years before himself. Either way, he had Tom and Jerry from the early 1970's so both of them would have been quite old by 1986.