Hazel’s daughter Ros reveals to Patrice Fidgeon the heartbreak of watching her mother slowly slip away from her family.
She’s been hailed as a national treasure. Australia’s former First Lady, who for close on 40 years was the wife of the ALP’s longest serving Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, is loved and respected by millions of Australians.
But sadly, today Hazel Hawke is oblivious to all that she has achieved in her lifetime.
“It’s heartbreaking,” says daughter Rosslyn, dabbing at tears she can’t hold back when she talks about her mother.
Hazel was an accomplished pianist who played at New York’s Carnegie Hall, a dedicated worker for many organisations and a strong and active leader in issues about community, family, the environment and the arts.
Then, almost eight years ago, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and since then her condition has deteriorated markedly.
“The last two years have been really sad,” says Ros. “It was tragic realising she was not the Hazel we knew anymore.”
In February this year, Hazel went into a nursing care facility. Ros often comes away from her visits there in tears.
“She doesn’t know who we are,” Ros says. “There are times when she has difficulty not only comprehending anything, but even speaking.”
Alzheimer’s is a sad, lonely and debilitating disease which not only takes away the sufferer’s life as they knew it, but is devastating for the victim’s family.
More than five years ago, Hazel went public about her deteriorating situation to help raise funds for research, increase awareness and help improve care for sufferers.
Initially she was angry and resentful about her condition.
“She used to refer to it as ‘the bloody A thing’,” Ros says. Both Ros and her sister, Sue Pieters-Hawke, supported their mother when she decided to reveal her diagnosis — and how it had hit her like a hammer — on ABC-TV’s Australian Story back in 2003.
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