A CHRISTMAS SURPRISE FOR TV DAAARLING JEANNE LITTLE
WHY THERE IS HOPE AMID THE HEARTBREAK THIS YEAR
There was a time when Jeanne Little lit up TV screens across the nation with her vibrant personality, those fluttering false eyelashes, wild wigs, outrageous outfits and her unmistakeable ‘Hello, daaarling’ catchcry.
Sadly, Jeanne’s famous voice has been silenced. For the past nine years, the triple Logie award-winning showbiz icon has been bedridden in a Sydney nursing home, unable to walk, due to the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease.
“This time of year is so cruel. Mum absolutely loved Christmas. She’d decorate the house in a totally over-the-top festive fashion, and her Christmas cake and pudding were the best,” recalls Jeanne’s heartbroken daughter, comedian and author Katie M. Little.
“Mum spends her days just staring at the ceiling, her mind robbed of all memories. She hasn’t recognised anyone in years, has no clue of her past glittering life as one of our most beloved entertainers, or that she is grandmother to three fabulous grandkids,” says Katie.
“She has no idea her devoted husband of the past 54 years, Barry, passed away last July.
They were soulmates and the loves of one another’s lives. Dad was absolutely devastated by what had become of Jeanne. “In the last few years they were in the same nursing home. Dad would sit with her for hours, holding her hand. I whispered into Mum’s ear that Barry had passed on, but there was not a scintilla of reaction. It is just so sad for those around her.”
For as long as she can remember, Katie says Jeanne, 81, was always impeccably groomed, priding herself on consistently looking her sparkling showbiz best – which is why she’s refused all requests for photographs of her now unrecognisable mum in nursing care to be published.
“Mum would be mortified – she’d hate to be seen looking less than her best, so I’ve maintained her wish. When
I wrote my memoir, Catch a Falling Star (released last year), I wrestled with my conscience about including an honest and poignant photo of Mum, how she looks now, living with Alzheimer’s,” says Katie, 45.
“But I knew she’d loathe it, even though she’d be all for using her fame to bring attention to the insidiousness of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.”
But a sensitive and lovingly painted portrait is a different matter. Katie says last year Jake Fiene, a 21-year-old artist from
“I LOOK AT THAT PAINTING AND I CAN HEAR HER VOICE RINGING IN MY HEAD”
Orange, NSW, attended one of her book signings and asked if he could paint Jeanne for the Archibald Prize.
“Jake’s mum was a big fan of Jeanne’s,” Katie says. “I wondered if he knew the challenge he was about to undertake. Seeing Mum virtually catatonic is jarring enough, but trying to capture the ‘real’ Jeanne as she is now, with a paintbrush and oils, could have been an almost impossible task – especially as he wanted to do her famed outrageous personality justice.
“From Jake’s view, she was a difficult subject – essentially an old woman with virtually no teeth, lying in a bed, her lifeless eyes staring into space, her grey hair hanging. All so at odds with the madcap, zany and colourful Jeanne Little millions loved. But he’s created something our whole family feels is not only authentic, but haunting, honest and beautiful. He has found life in her eyes, which is amazing.”
“Jake has done a remarkable job. I know Mum would absolutely adore him. I look at that painting and I can hear her voice ringing in my head: ‘Don’t I look awful, a fright, but you’ve done a stunning job, Jake!’”
Katie says the festive season is the hardest on her and the family when thinking about her famous mum.
“Jeanne was the most extraordinary mother,” she says. “She loved being a grandmother and spoiled her grandkids rotten. My favourite childhood memories were helping Mum make the Christmas pudding.
“I’ve continued the tradition with my kids. We all hop in and make the pudding, but I can’t help choking up and shedding a quiet tear every time I think of Mum. Someone so alive, so constantly upbeat, so generous and kind to everyone she ever met. Now she’s just lying around waiting to die.”
Katie says Jeanne would be thrilled to have been painted for the Archibald Prize. “She’d see it as such an honour. I hope the painting sparks ongoing conversation about Alzheimer’s and dementia, which is the number one cause of death in women in
Australia.”