DPS - MY ARTICLE draft A

The Queen Returns

We’ve been waiting 5 years for her to come out of hiding. And now? She’s back. And she’s better than ever before. Armed and ready to regain her throne, and while trample down anyone who gets in her way.

That’s right.

Andrea Elber has returned.

We wanted to find out what sent this woman into hiding for so long. She agreed to clear up the mist of uncertainty. Here. Right now, we discovered the truth.

You were the best female classical artist the world has seen in a long time? Where did you go?

“Well, you see. About 5 years ago, I finally realised, from how poisonous the fame was, and what it was this was doing to my family. My marriage broke down. Now that, that really swept me off my feet and made me have a different perspective of how damaging fame is to you. And around this time, my son, my wonderful boy, was announced terminal. He was only 7. That shook my world more than my marriage. It was awful. I couldn’t let fame and the pain merge. I had to get away.”

That’s understandable. Do you want to talk about your son a little more? Was he a happy boy?

“Oh, of course. I love talking about my precious boy Richard, unfortunately, he is no longer with us. He was such a sweet boy. So, joyful, he had a lot of friends. He’d always pester me to bring them around and one day. God, I remember it as if it was yesterday. One day, he just stopped being himself. As his mother, it was ridiculously heart-breaking to watch their child’s personality slip away from him, now, we weren’t aware of his illness. We had taken him to countless doctors’ appointments, me and my husband put my son through hell, he done countless blood-tests but no-one could find the cause. That was the toughest part. Not knowing. The Unknowingness.”

That really does sound awful. How did you cope?

“Well, at first, me and my husband both denied ourselves this was happening, that it was a phase that there was nothing wrong with our boy. He was just down in the dumps. But, I kept getting calls, almost every-day, from the school saying he has a sharp pain across his side, we kept taking him to the doctors, we were awfully scared.”

When did you find out the worst?

“Well, as a matter of fact, it was one night. My husband broke down, he was so conflicted about the situation. He couldn’t deal with the thought of losing our son, to what? An unknown cause. So, he picked him up and rushed him to a hospital in Cambridge, about 75 miles from where we were living at the time. We arrived. My husband waited outside while I sat and held his hand. We waited hours for an outcome, and when the doctor finally came… I could tell it was something serious. My face when white when the words “I’m so sorry. But, your son has cancer... He’s terminal, and doesn’t have much longer to live… there’s nothing we can do.” Quaked through my system. I broke down, it must’ve been so loud, my husband came rushing in from four rooms down”

How did you cope?
“Well. How can someone cope? My son was terminal. It was like I was in a never-ending horror show. I fell into depression… It was awful. I felt sorry for myself, whilst my son was happy and was spending his little time left with absolutely anyone. I don’t know what I had done wrong to get this to happen to me. I just felt like the whole word was against me, I shut off. I missed meetings with my agent, I missed concerts. I decided to go off the map. I didn’t want to be found, I didn’t want to be acknowledged. All I think was “why me?” and “why not anyone else?” and yes I know that is awfully selfish and no one deserves this but I’m pretty sure ANY parent would feel the same. But, I am so glad I am back. It feels good.”













In the end I decided not to use this because it was not related to music enough.