Story so moving it inspired a gift of flowers
PAULINE HUNTER spent much of her working life watching how much time, effort, passion and love needed to be put into children and adults who suffered physical and mental disabilities, to give them their best shot at living meaningful lives.
She said she was brought to tears by the sacrifice made by Deborah Hanlon after she read last week’s front page “A mother’s love” story in Dubbo
“Absolutely, it was very heart-warming to see an older couple supporting a young man with so many needs, it was just absolutely amazing,” Mrs Hunter told Dubbo Photo News when she dropped a bouquet of flowers off at the office, to pass on to the Hanlons.
As we reported last week, Deborah Hanlon is Mitchell Newman’s aunt. Mitchell is mentally and physically disabled. Deborah took him in as a six-week-old baby and, from that time on, she and husband Mark have given Mitchell ‘round-the-clock care.
“I thought, ‘Mother’s Day is coming up and there’s a woman who deserves to have something; there’s a woman who really, honestly and truly, has done her part as an aunty but also as a mother for this poor young fellow and good for her.’
“I was only too happy to do something for her.”
Mrs Hunter spent decades working at Lourdes Hospital in administration and said an enormous amount of commitment was necessary to properly care for those people with high-dependency needs.
“It takes a lot of people to help those who are disabled, it needs a lot of people to help build their confidence and make their lives worth living,” Mrs Hunter said.
She’s glad the Hanlons, and Mitchell, have found such amazing services which have helped them in Dubbo, but feels sad they were forced to leave Sydney to get that level of assistance and care.
She said her years at Lourdes showed her just how important it was for people with high needs, and their families and carers, to be properly supported.
“I saw the results,” she said. So Mrs Hunter knew in her heart just how challenging the day-to-day lives of Deborah
and Mark Hanlon must be. “It must be so hard to do everything on their own, they must have support.
“It’s obviously impacted on them financially, it must be a struggle, just to do this, it makes me wonder where our money’s going that’s meant to support people who need it,” Mrs Hunter said.