Disaster struck, however, during the recording of A Very Fine Love. Dusty was diagnosed with breast cancer and was dragged through the ordeal of chemotherapy and radiotherapy to stop the disease, and eventually given the all-clear. Unfortunately, the remission was short-lived. The cancer came back with a vengeance and this time it was terminal. Dusty found a house in quiet Henley On Thames in England to live out the rest of her days, out of the limelight and surrounded by close friends and family, including her beloved Californian Ragdoll Cat, Nicholas. “She wants to die Mary O’Brien, that’s who she was and it is who she is becoming again, it’s as if she wants to go back to the beginning." (Lee Everett Alkin) Dusty Springfield, the greatest singer the world ever saw, passed away on 2 March, 1999, at age fifty-nine. Shortly before her death, Queen Elisabeth II awarded her the O.B.E. (Order of the British Empire), which was accepted for her by a friend and given to her in hospital. Eleven days after her death, she was inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall Of Fame by long-time friend, Sir Elton John. “I thought that Dusty was the best female singer to come along at the time. To me she was as good as Aretha Franklin…and completely timeless…she was the greatest.” (Sir Elton John)