If Freddie Mercury was Jer Bulsara’s little prince, for the late singer his mom was the real Queen – the Queen of warmth, elegance and grace.
Jer Bulsara passed away on November 13 at the age of 94. Her daughter Kashmira Cooke confirmed the news of her death to the press, saying that she died in her sleep.
Her death comes just about 25 years after the demise of her son, the late Queen singer Farrokh Bulsara, popularly known as Freddie Mercury.
The Queen frontman passed away on November 24, 1991.
Queen’s Brian May paid tribute to his late bandmate’s mother with a touching letter posted on his website: “Jer was a warm and devoted Mum to Freddie, and, like Freddie, always had a strong twinkle in the eye. Although she was also devoted to her husband Bomi, and lived in the Zoroastrian faith as a good Parsee, she had an independent spirit and a strong sense of humour.”
Jer was fiercely proud of Mercury, although she had hoped that he would become a lawyer or an accountant. She had a “Freddie room” in her home.
Jer survived her son, who died of an Aids-related illness 25 years ago. She became something of a celebrity in her own right among Queen fans and found consolation in Mercury’s continuing popularity. Her popularity could be gauged from the stream of letters that she used to receive from across the world, from strangers telling her what her son’s songs meant to them. Many were simply addressed to “Freddie Mercury’s mother, England”. The Royal Mail sincerely delivered them to her final home near Nottingham.
Jer’s religion helped her to accept Mercury’s death.
“No mother wants to see her son die, but he has done more for the world in his short life than many people could do in 100 years,” she said, as quoted in The Times.
Jer was born in Gujarat, India, in October 1922 into a Parsee family. She married Bomi Bulsara who was 14 years her senior and worked as a cashier at the British colonial office in Bombay (now Mumbai). He died in 2003, aged 95.
Bomi was transferred to the British protectorate of Zanzibar, where Freddie and Kashmira were born. But soon the Zanzibar revolution in 1964 forced the family to flee to Britain.
Mercury was very close to his mother, and continued to visit his parents regularly in their Feltham house, west London, long after he had become a superstar and was living lavishly in a Kensington mansion.
Her home-made cheese biscuits frequently sustained Queen during long, all-night recording sessions.
If Mercury rocked the world with his music, the woman behind the genius perhaps was Jer. No wonder, they say the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.
