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London — George's Michael's family is asking fans to remove flowers, photos and other tributes left outside the late singer's two homes.
A grassy square across from Michael's London house is bedecked in bouquets candles, flags and handwritten messages for the singer, who died in December 2016.
Similar offerings have been left outside the house in Goring, 80 kilometres from London, where Michael died.
In a post Wednesday on Michael's website , his father, sisters and friend David Austin said they were touched by the tributes, but felt they couldn't ask neighbors "to continue to accept as normality, the memorials so personal to you all, to remain as and where they are any longer."
They asked fans to remove the tributes by 27 May, "leaving any you wish us to have."
SEE THE FULL STATEMENT HERE:
Hello everyone, & the lovely ‘Lovelies’,
Firstly, thank you for your sweet messages about Abby, she will be much missed but it is helping us all , imagining she has joined forces with Meggy, Mo, and Hippy up in the clouds….
Our Family feel, that the time has now come to share some decisions we have taken around our new reality, and situation since we lost Yog. That means we have had to come to decisions about many issues, some of which are more sensitive than others.
All of these decisions have been difficult but, they do need to be taken, ultimately keeping all things and all people in mind. One we have thought long and hard about, are the tributes at Highgate and Goring-on-Thames.
We’ve been touched by your many tributes celebrating and remembering Yog, reminding us how very much he is missed and loved. However, we feel we cannot expect our Highgate and Goring neighbours to continue to accept as normality, the memorials so personal to you all, to remain as and where they are any longer although, we do appreciate your recent efforts to minimise their impact.
However, this is what we feel we now need to do.
We would like to ask anyone that wants to, to come and collect your tributes to Yog, between the 1stMay (Tues) and the weekend of the 26th/27th of May, (Leaving any you wish us to have) so we can return both Mill Cottage, and The Grove to their former simple state.
This will take time to do properly, so we ask for your patience whilst trying to improve the grass and railings, at The Grove.
Yog liked his privacy, his homes were true havens for him (-such a Cancerian!) and, ultimately, long term, we know he would not want to disturb or change the quiet neighbourhoods he so loved, for the people in the local area, who honestly , despite reports otherwise have been gracious and very understanding.
As many people have now discovered, Yog did a lot of quiet giving over many years. Perhaps in his memory, you may want to ‘pay it forward’ and support, through either volunteering, or by way of donation, one of his favourite charities which, so many of you have already done to fantastic effect, or maybe some ‘random acts of kindness’ would be a fitting tribute. Sometimes it’s those little thoughtful things, which feel so good to do, that can really make someone’s day.
We like, whenever we are charged with making decisions in Yogs’ name, to think ‘what would Yog do’, and the family will continue to take decisions as we think he would have done.
We are hoping, into the future, to get back to you with some more thoughts on ways and ideas to remember Yog that we hope you’ll like, and be a part of.
Thank you all for your understanding,
Take care,
Mel, Yioda, Jack & David
