But the winner in the tabloids’ fiction-writing contest was the article headlined “Hundred of Fans Are Asking .... IS MICHAEL JACKSON DEAD?” The author of the article put one and one together (the change in Michael’s physical appearance over the years, plus his change in image) .... and got six. I could only shake my head and laugh at the tabloids’ shameless attempts to sell papers.

     I wasn’t laughing, however, after I picked up a copy of the August 8 issue of People magazine and read its feature on the Jackson family.

     “Katherine and Joe Jackson find themselves out of touch -- and often at odds -- with most of their remarkable brood,” the magazine maintained. The article went on to portray a “fractious” Jackson family torn by enough internal bickering, intrigue, and jealousy “to supply the plot of ‘Dynasty’ for another eight seasons.”

     “So now the press has tired to taking potshots at Michael and has declared open hunting season on the entire family,” I said.

     Adding credence to the magazine’s charges were quotes of Joe’s that were critical of Michael.

     “We wonder why things have changed like they have, why [Michael] doesn’t seem to care about his family,” Joe told People. “The few times we’ve spoken to him, he seems glad to hear from us. But when you talk to other people, they say Michael doesn’t want to be involved with his family.”

     I don’t agree with everything Joe Jackson says, and I didn’t agree with his depiction of a Michael estranged from the family. Michael had been on the road at the point of nearly a year. I think that Joe rued his words, too.

     The Jackson family did not live in a fairy-tale land devoid of strife in 1988. Like any large family, we had our share of problems. For example, Joe’s relationship with Michael in 1988 wasn’t as good as I think it could and should have been. I read Joe’s complaint about Michael as more of a cry of frustration over the fact than anything else.

     To figure out what makes a person tick, I think you have to look at his formative years. I was raised by two strict, yet loving parents. Joe, by contrast, was raised by two strict parents, period. Judging by the times that I heard Sam and Chrystal Jackson utter the words, “I love you” -- zero -- Joe didn’t hear them often, if ever, when he was growing up. Sam Jackson would show his love for Joe, me, and the grandkids only in the little things that he would do for us in Gary: sewing tears in my children’s pants, or buying several pairs of pants for me after seeing me stand out in the cold at the bus stop in a dress.

     Having been nurtured and loved, it’s second nature for me to express my love to my kids. I can’t get off the phone with any of them without saying “I love you.” But Joe can’t bring himself to open up to the children even though sharing personal feelings is the only way to make a relationship grow.

     Ironically, I’ve heard Joe tell his friends how attached he is to the kids, how protective he feels toward them.

     “Tell your children that instead of your friends!” I’ve pleaded.

     But Joe replies stubbornly, “They know.”

     Joe did demonstrate his attachment to one of his sons, Jermaine, in early 1988, when I opposed, on moral grounds, Jermaine’s request that he be allowed to stay temporarily in our house with his girlfriend Margaret Maldonado and their son, Jeremy, following his divorce from Hazel.

     “Kate, he’s my son and I’m giving him permission,” Joe announced. “I’ll take full responsibility for allowing him to return.” (Jermaine stayed at home until June 1989, when he, Margaret, Jeremy, and Jourdyn, who was born in January of that year, moved to an apartment in Beverly Hills.)

     Not long after Jermaine moved back in, LaToya moved out, making her well-publicized professional split from Joe. That and her decisions to pose for Playboy and write a “tell-all” book about the family were the biggest traumas for the Jacksons in 1988.

     Despite these problems, I think that anyone who really knew the Jacksons in 1988 saw a family that was far more close-knit than People magazine gave the Jacksons credit for being.

     Regarding the charge that I, as well as Joe, was “out of touch” with our kids, the timing of the article’s publication was ironic. That week, Janet, one of the kids whom Joe and I were supposedly “struggling” to maintain good relations with, showed up at the house with two rhinestone-elephant pins that she’d bought for me in London a couple of days earlier (I have an elephant collection). While it was true that she had decided to take more of a hand in her own management in 1988, thereby cutting her professional ties with Joe, she showed her appreciation to her father for his help over the years by informing me, “I’ll never stop giving Joe his percentage. I just want to do that.”

     People in the music business know the truth about my relationship with my kids. When a record-company executive or a business associate has a hard time reaching one of the children, he typically attempts to make contact through me. Also, I am frequently asked to approach a specific child with a business proposition. If I think that the proposition has merit, I present it. (However, I am careful not to approach the children too often. I don’t want them to begin thinking, Uh-oh, here comes Mother again, trying to talk us into doing something.)

     The children who live in Los Angeles visited at the house regularly enough in 1988 for Rebbie to refer to the house as “a filling station .... You fill up on what’s going on, then return when you want to know more.”

     Most didn’t have far to travel. Tito and his family live just up the road from Joe and me in a Spanish-style home set on four hilltop acres. Marlon and his family live just around the corner in an English Tudor-style home that was featured in Ebony. Jackie lives in a condo that we keep in neighboring Van Nuys. Janet and Randy live in condos in nearby Bel-Air and Westwood, respectively. Jermaine lives just a little farther away than they do, in Beverly Hills.

     In fact, outside of Michael, the only child who has a bit of a “commute” to the house is Rebbie. She lives with her family in a comfortable two-story home in Agoura, about a thirty-minute drive.

     Of my children living in Los Angeles area, the only one I wouldn’t see for weeks at a time was independent Randy. If I started to miss him, I’d call him.

     “Randy, you still have a mother and father who love you,” I’d gently remind him.

     “Okay, Mom, I’m coming to see you!” And he would.

     In my one-on-one times with my children, meanwhile, we ran a gamut of activities.

     Jackie, the family’s premier sports fan, tried to encourage my own building interest in sports. He and my nephew Tony taught me how to follow a football game on television. Jackie also invited me to a number of Lakers basketball games; he has season tickets.

     I also attended a Lakers game with Marlon, who has season tickets, as well. But my favorite times with him were spent in philosophical discussions, about life and God. Marlon is a deep thinker.

     I also spoke frequently to Rebbie about God and His teachings; Rebbie remains a devout Jehovah’s Witness like me. But we also shared a “light” interest, interior decorating. Rebbie did a lot of redecorating of her Agoura home in 1988, and we went out shopping together from time to time.

     Janet is an avid games player. She, her boyfriend Rene Elizondo, my nephew Tony, and I spent a number of evenings playing Pictionary and Scrabble in the upstairs den.

     Jermaine’s a movie buff. He got hid hands on many first-run movies in 1988, and invited me and whoever else was around to watch them with him in our theatre.

     Because I saw Randy infrequently in 1988, our times together were mainly spent talking at the house. Alluding to his real estate investments -- Westwood condo, Beverly Hills house, recording studio, and beach house -- I loved to tease him. “Randy,” I’d say, “you’re the baby boy and here you are trying to be a business man. You probably don’t even know what you’re doing.” Randy’s got a good sense of humor, so I know I can get away with barbs like that.

     I also didn’t see Tito as frequently as many of the others in 1988. When he wasn’t working in his home studio, he was restoring one of his Model A’s or vintage Mercedeses. And when he wasn’t doing that, he was off with his family in Big Bear, where he has a cabin, or Oxnard, where he has an oceanfront condo. But the times that we did spend together were very meaningful, because Tito typically sought me out whenever he was hurting or confused about a matter in his personal life or career.

     TITO: My mother is one of the few people in my life who I can tell everything to. It’s just the way she listens and understands. Her vibes are very good.

     JERMAINE: One of the things that keeps us coming back to her is the fact that she’s never shown any favoritism. From the most successful children to the ones who are “low on the totem pole,” she treats us all the same. It’s just like we were still living in Gary.

     The children were no more “at odds -- and out of touch” with one another than I was with them in 1988, despite People’s charge that the Jackson family was wracked by “sibling jealousy.”

     REBBIE: As the sibling who’s earned the least amount of money in show business, I would have more cause than any of my brothers or sisters to feel jealous. But I don’t.

     After I moved to California, I loved showing off my brothers’ beautiful homes to the friends who came to visit me. My attitude at the time was that I felt proud just to be their sister. I still feel that way.

     I’m close to my brothers, and I honestly don’t see any jealousy among them, either. I think these charges of “sibling jealousy” arose because the press just assumes that there has to be some because Michael has been so outstandingly successful. But assuming something doesn’t make it so.

     JACKIE: I’m happy for my brother selling all those albums. I hope he sells a hundred million. He’s just paving the way for the rest of us.

     In fact, Michael has made a point of extending a helping hand to his brothers and sisters. His offer to write and produce a song for Rebbie, for example, helped her get a recording deal with CBS Records in 1984 (“Centipede,” the song he contributed to her debut album, became the LP’s title tune as well as a Top Forty pop hit). He helped Jackie by getting CBS’s permission for him to record a solo album for Polygram Records. And he really went to bat at CBS for Marlon after Marlon announced his decision to leave the Jacksons and Epic Records in 1985. Michael succeeded in getting Marlon his release after Epic refused Marlon’s own request, thereby allowing the opportunity to pursue a full-time solo recording career.

     REBBIE: As for the related charge of sibling rivalry in our family, I believe that the press has confused competitiveness with the desire on all of our parents to be successful.

     MARLON: One thing about being a child star is that some people aren’t willing to have you become an adult. They see you embarking on a solo career after recording exclusively with your brothers for years, and they refer to what you’ve done as “breaking away” or “tearing apart.” They don’t recognize your right to grow up, to grow. But if there’s no depth, there’s no destiny. Everybody is entitled to do what they want to do in life.

     TITO: And we don’t feud with one another; the press has made that related charge. In fact, if any of the brothers gets into an argument, we can’t leave the room without making up.

     JERMAINE: You want to know what the bottom line is? The Jacksons are a family we will remain. You have to shoe unity.

     There are two Jackson family traditions that bespeak unity.

     One is the Family Meeting, held in either the upstairs den or downstairs trophy room. The meetings are held to discuss business or personal matters that arise affecting one or more of us. Any of the Jacksons may request one.

     In 1988, Randy asked for a Family Meeting because someone in the business had been “bad mouthing” him, and he was upset. “Why would he call a meeting about this?” the rest of us wondered. “People bad mouth each other all the time in the business.” But Randy was hurting, and he wanted to share his feelings with us. So we met and listened to him.

     In 1988 we also called a Family Meeting to discuss a topic that was of great concern to all of us: LaToya. Much of the meeting was spent devising approaches that we could make to her in attempt to persuade her to part company with her manager, Jack Gordon, and return home to us.

     The other Jackson tradition is Family Day. Limited to Joe and me, the children, and the grandchildren, Family Day is little more than your old-fashioned barbecue, with maybe a movie thrown in for entertainment. Business talk is discouraged; Family Day is a time for the Jacksons to drop their work, forget their cares, and be a family again. Joe and I and a couple of the kids hosted Family Day during 1988.

     My words’-eye picture of the Jackson family in 1988 wouldn’t be complete without a comment on Joe’s and my relationship.

     People magazine made mention of our crisis, as well as the “rumors of Joe philandering.” However, the article’s writer was content to let Joe have the final word on us: “We survived. We love each other, and we have children. That’s why we’re together.” That was one People quote of Joe’s that I did agree with.

     This is not to say that by 1988 I had totally gotten over my deep hurt at his infidelity, because I hadn’t. When the painful thoughts came up, I dealt with them. But mostly I was able to keep a positive focus. God knows I have so much to be thankful for in my life.

     I had detected one change in Joe by 1988, a mellowing of sorts. While he still had several business projects on the front burner, he was content to stay home much more than in the past. He also made time to do things that he hadn’t done in years: cook meals, barbecue in the yard. He really surprised me when he began making the bed in the morning.

     When I decided to buy a weekend home in Las Vegas in 1988, Joe insisted on redecorating the spare room next to the pool himself. After he did that he began talking about planting a vegetable garden.

     As hard as it was for Joe to talk about his feelings, it occurred to me that his new show of teamwork around the house was his subtle way of telling me that he was happy that we were still together after nearly four decades of marriage.

     I don’t want to give the impression that Joe had “gone soft.” He still hated “I told you so’s,” as in “Joe, I told you not to talk to People magazine.” He still was prone to moodiness. Sometimes he’d still get so mad about something or other that his forehead would sort of rise up and he would change color -- a tip that I should take the day off and go shopping.

     Also, let the record show that Joe Jackson still had his devilish side.

     The first weekend we stayed at our Las Vegas house, I was talking one night in my bedroom with a friend, Amelia Patterson. A warm, gusty wind was blowing, and the branches of the mulberry tree were casting moving shadows against the curtains; it was a somewhat spooky sight. But Amelia and I got into such a deep talk that I forgot about the shadows.

     All of a sudden we heard a scratching sound against a window in one of the french doors. I walked over to the door, peered out, and spied a form crouching in the shadows. I nearly jumped out of my skin!

     I took off out of the bedroom like a shot. Amelia was right on my tail.