Belinda Emmett's last goodbye
BELINDA Emmett is continuing to give inspiration even in death with an emotional video diary giving hope to others in their own battle against cancer.
THE selfless Belinda Emmett is continuing to give inspiration even in death with an emotional video diary giving hope to others in their own battle against cancer.
Emmett's video diary, revealed in a documentary that aired last night, showed a woman who loved life and laughed in the face of the illness that eventually claimed her life.
Speaking publicly for the first time since his daughter's death in November last year, Michael Emmett described the former Home and Away actress and singer as being more concerned for her family "than she was for herself".
"Her absolute last words were, she woke up and Lesley (her sister) was holding her hand and having a bit of a quiet weep, and Belinda looked up at her and said, 'Are you all right?'," Mr Emmett told the ABC's Australian Story.
The program used interviews with family and friends, including husband Rove McManus, and Emmett's video diary to paint a picture of a determined woman with a love of life, even when diagnosed with bone cancer.
On an incredibly moving episode of ABC's Australian Story last night, the actor and singer's father Michael Emmett reveals his daughter was "always more concerned for them than she was for herself".
"Her absolute last words were, she woke up and (sister) Lesley (Arthur) was holding her hand and having a bit of a quiet weep, and Belinda looked up at her and said, 'Are you all right?'," he said.
It is the first time the family has spoken publicly since her death in November last year.
Titled Some Meaning In This Life, the documentary - told through the eyes of friends and family and in Emmett's own words through a video diary - revealed a determination to fight the cancer that eventually killed her.
"She didn't give up the fight for an instant," Mr Emmett said. And yet his daughter had learned to accept her fate.
"About a week or so before she died, she actually came to me and put her arms around me and said, 'Dad, I don't think I'm going to grow old'."
The family agreed to be a part of the documentary to show their daughter in a different light to the "brave Belinda" she is often described as. The program highlighted Emmett's sense of humour and amazing zest for life.
"A lot of one liners and a bit of black humour," Lesley Arthur said of her "very witty" sister's response to cancer.
"Even with the cancer she really would joke about it all the time," she said. "I know it was scary at times and her way of coping was to joke about it and it sort of made people, her family, relax around it too, to know that she was sort of OK with it."
In her diary, Emmett jokes she might call her documentary In Bed With The Big C.
"I'm not going to let it (cancer) kill my spirit," Emmett said.
"I don't wish time away. Even though I want chemo to be over, I still want to enjoy every single day. I still want to find my enjoyment throughout all this s. . .."
The former Home And Away star and singer was 32 when she succumbed to bone cancer shortly after dawn on November 11 last year.
As well as her parents Michael and Lorraine, those interviewed included sister Lesley, brother Shane, best friend Kate Cook and husband Rove McManus who she lovingly referred to as "Red Rover".
McManus told of the night he met his future wife at the 1999 opening of Fox Studios.
"In the time it took us, which was probably 45 minutes, to get on one of the theme park attractions, we just started talking and we hit it off," the Channel 10 personality said.
"We were kind of inseparable by the end of the night."
Emmett was first diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 24. Three years later, in 2001, she was diagnosed with secondary bone cancer and given just 12 months to live.
Emmett was filming the movie The Nugget with Eric Bana when she was told.
"When we found it was officially back . . . it was just that feeling of having our entire world just yanked out from under our feet," McManus said.
Despite her illness, Emmett never stopped singing. Her posthumous first album So I Am debuted at No. 10 on the ARIA charts. She recalled a painful moment just as she was preparing with for a potentially career-altering meeting with Sony Records.
"Jumped in the shower, washing the hair, massive clumps of hair coming out in my hands, massive clumps," she revealed.
Throughout it all, Emmett remained extremely close to her "beautiful" husband.
"I know it breaks his heart to watch me," Emmett said in her video diary. "I know he doesn't really know what to say and he tries so hard to say the right thing. He's just so beautiful, and you couldn't ask for anything better."