Michael Hutchence - Official Website

Sweet Sister T by Karine

On the 7th June 2004 we held the first competition on this website with some great prizes up for grabs. Karine met up with Tina in Los Angeles to help draw the winning names. Below is Karine's story ...

Today is a big day for me.. I am going to meet Tina. I'm so thrilled but so anxious at the same time! We arranged to meet at 10.30am so that we could talk for a while before the competition draw. When I rang the bell, my heart went crazy.. I was happy but nervous at the same time!

Tina opened the door and when I saw her, that was it! Everything was fine. We started talking, and I gave her a photo album with about 40 pictures of INXS and especially pictures of Michael.. I had also brought a little present for her and she liked it, so that was great!

When we looked at the pictures, it was really emotional for both of us. Especially for Tina because she had never seen my photos of INXS before. We then went into her room to start the competition draw. She showed me Michael's hat, and then she took 2 pictures of me with the hat on! So weird.. but such a great feeling..

Karine happy wearing Michael's
hat from the The One Thing video

Tina Hutchence
"And the winner is.."

When we entered the website to go into the chat room we were talking about bits & pieces, Michael, and a few things.

We arrived in the chat room after everyone! Everything went so quick; we couldn't even read on the screen!! We were both laughing and the whole thing was just so hilarious!!! but anyway, we managed our way into the chat room, and started the competition draw. Tina had prepared pieces of paper with names and everything was in the hat. She was typing and I picked up the names.

Vera was N° 3, then Flowerty N° 2, and Deb N° 1. Congratulations girls!

We announced the winners each time on the chat room and that was funny to see the reactions of the winners. That was a great moment!

1st Prize Winner Deb bagley with her framed Michael Hutchence t-shirt and autographed copy of Just A Man
2nd Prize Winner Maureen (flowerty) with her framed Michael Hutchence vest	3rd Prize Winner - Vera recevied the Limited Edition CD signed by the band in 2002

We stayed for a while and discuss with everyone. Then Tina wanted us to spend some time together and go for lunch so we left.

We waited for my friend Elodie to join us, and we talked mainly about Michael, little Tiger, and just life. That was very emotional, and I'm really grateful to Tina for the time she shared with me on that day.

We went to have lunch in a very nice place, and talked again. After lunch we got back to the house and took some pictures. I was really sad to leave Tina, and had a wonderful time with her for 5 hours.

It was very hard for me to go, I would have loved to spend some more time with her.
Anyway it was such a great day, really emotional, and such wonderful memories.
Thank you so much for your precious time sweet sister T, for all your beautiful memories, for all the kind words you said, and just for what you are, a wonderful person.

As you know, Michael will always be in my heart, for what he was, for the time I have spent with him, and for all the great memories I have since 20 years.

Michael was loved for what he was; Just a Man. But what a Man!

June 7 th , 2004

Karine xx

Tina & Karine after a great day!

Karine wasn't the only nervous person. I was very excited at meeting her. I had heard that she had a wonderful collection of photographs and was so thrilled when she gave me a beautiful little photo album – it was so emotional knowing that she had spent a lot of time with Michael over the years.

Each photograph made me feel like I was present when it was taken. To see photographs of Michael when he was fresh and healthy and happy and excited about the future is so bittersweet it was hard not to shed some tears.

Karine is right; the ‘chat-draw' zoomed along, with everybody ‘speaking' at once. But it was fun, we giggled our way through it. Every now and then I would panic and lose the screen and Karine leaned over and touched a key and it would pop up again.

We continued to talk through lunch – Karine occasionally pausing to explain something to Elodie in French and for my part, well, I had a little 2 year-old to tend to – thank you Karine and Elodie for your patience as I guided my tiny Japanese speaking friend through lunch.

When it was time for Karine to leave, I was really sad. But I feel that I have found a special friend; a warm and compassionate friend.

Tina