Posted:
13 years ago
On March 7, 1973,
young Michael Jackson visits the bedside of 6-year old Leslie Robinette
- suffering from from aplastic anemia caused by the genetic disease
fanconi anemia – at the Seattle Children's Hospital - then The
Children's Orthopedic Hospital and Medical Center. Robinette received a
bone marrow transplant, and was one of the youngest to ever have the
procedure. She went through chemotherapy, radiation, an ever-changing
plethora of medications and was kept in isolation for three months; her
state of health was precarious, the doctors saying, after she was
dismissed from the hospital, that she might live 10 years. "I was
sitting in my room looking out the window, ironically listening to
'Looking Through the Window' by the Jackson 5, when I heard all the
nurses going wild and carrying on", Robinette declares 26 years later. Coincidentally, the Jackson 5 were there. "They asked me which one I wanted to see, and I said I wanted to see Michael - he was the cute one", she
says, laughing. She describes teenage Jackson as shy, but kind and
sincere, signing an autographer for her, holding her hand and asking
about her state. "I would never say that he saved her life - that's
crazy - but he gave her back a little of her will to live because she
had lost it", Trine Robinette, Leslie's sister adds. Leslie eventually
did improve, and her family returned to their farm in Greeneville,
Tenn., where she still lives with her parents. 11 years later, Leslie
met Jackson again, while he was on tour in Knoxville with his brothers,
where she received free tickets, then went backstage to meet the Jackson
clan. "I asked him if he remembered me, and he said yes. We talked
about my singing in chorus and how I was getting my back brace off
soon", Robinette says. Jackson then told his security detail that
she was his guest, so she got to watch the third show from a raised VIP
platform, seated right next to Jackson's mother, Katherine. Still
struggling with her disease, she is less than 4 feet tall and weighs
about 60 pounds, but she is now 42 and is involved in North American
Riding for the Handicapped Association and currently is training to
become an instructor. "I've always felt that Michael and I were kind
of kindred spirits, because we both grew up not being able to really go
anywhere or do anything normal kids do", Robinette says, adding that she hopes people will remember Michael Jackson for his good deeds and music.