Yes of course it is different and in that vein would be easier for iman and Lexie and Duncan to accept. He knew he had a grandkid on the way but he also knew he would never meet them. He knew it was the end whether totally naturally or not. But I don’t think a lot of people realise how sick he was for a long time before. He was determined to keep it quiet - only very few friends and his band out of necessity knew outside the family and he had good people around him so it never leaked either. But first he was getting treatment and trying to fight it, which anyone knows is no walk in the park.
Then he knew for a good few months that it was terminal, but he still finished the album and had a musical debut on broadway in December of that year - the opening night was the last time he was seen in public, and he came onstage for the curtain call and
still people didn’t know he was sick.
There are photos from that night, and then ones allegedly taken in January though I don’t think it’s ever been fully confirmed. That’s when they were published which I think is the confusion... If they were taken then it’s pretty extraordinary considering he died 11 days into the month.
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But all these months he was suffering and in terrible pain.
Add to that the goodbye email he sent to Brian Eno, who didn’t know that’s what it was st the time (very moving if anyone want to look it up) I completely see why it could have been planned by him. So I guess I can’t discount it entirely. But it also could be a man who was determined to achieve certain things before he died, finally stopping. I know life and death is not always so simple, many people can’t control it like that. But sometimes it is.
that came out of her mouth 
