Dateline Boston — The death of Prince on April 21 left me reeling. I’ve been a fan since 1984, the year Purple Rain was released. I saw the movie in the theater, and somehow got a copy of the movie on cassette. I used to listen to it before I went to bed.
I remained a fan, long after others had dropped off in the late ‘80s. I went to his house in Minnesota in the ‘90s. I saw him in concert at least 10 times, the first in 1986, the last in 2013. I have every cassette and CD. Never have I loved an artist so much and with such passion.
I thought I had adequately prepared for his death. I knew that one day he would die. I just thought it would be a long time from now. It was so sudden! My friend called me to tell me the news while I was at work. She said, “A, you okay?” I asked what she was talking about, and she said, “Prince.” I shut down so fast she barely had time to hang up. I told her I didn’t know what she was talking about, and I didn’t want to know what she was talking about, and I had to go, bye!
It Was True
A few minutes later, my phone came alive with texts, and my Facebook wall was full of Prince posts. At least 20 people said I was the first person they thought of when they heard the news.
The next day I put on the last Prince concert tee-shirt I own and went about my business, looking for other fans to mourn with. All weekend I accosted people if they were wearing purple. There was a woman at Trader Joe’s who looked to be in her eighties. She had purple on, head to toe. I went up to her and said, “Excuse me, are you a Prince fan?” “A what?” she replied. She said no, she didn’t even really like music, but had heard about Prince’s death. She told me she was sorry for my loss, which was nice.
As the weekend went on, I started to get angry about the lack of outward Prince fans in my town. When Husband and I saw Purple Rain in a theatre with a friend, the theatre wasn’t full at first. As I turned the corner and saw seats empty, I shouted, “Aw, come on!”
On Sunday, another friend and I organized a Prince memorial picnic. I made a Prince symbol sign to attract mourners, and we played his songs from a speaker. The only people who stopped by were a Golden Retriever and a hotel worker on his lunch break who wasn’t really a fan, but wanted to take a picture and have me post it on Facebook.
It’s been a week now. I’ve heard of several parties that are happening in the next coming weeks. I’ll go to as many as I can. In the meantime, I’ll celebrate in my own way, wearing purple, listening to my Prince CDs on my old fashioned radio/CD player. Prince, you are gone, but will never be forgotten.
Ms. Vaillancourt may be contacted at snobbyblog@gmail.com