Maddie Riewoldt’s mother, gran find strength in her fight

MADDIE Riewoldt’s mother has penned an emotional letter to her late daughter telling her how proud she is of the huge difference she is making to the world to mark the third anniversary of her death. READ THE LETTER

Fiona Riewoldt holding a picture of her late daughter Madeleine and Madeleine’s grandmother Fay. Picture: Ian Currie

“MY daughter and I spent seven months watching the highs and lows of Maddie in ICU. I saw the look of love and pain in Fiona’s face, an indication that each day she never gave up, not until that final call to say no more could be done, Maddie’s struggle was over.”

These are the handwritten words of 89-year-old Fay Hean, mother of Fiona Riewoldt and grandmother of the late Maddie, the sister of St Kilda champion Nick. In 2015, Maddie, at age 26, passed away from aplastic anaemia.

Fiona embraces her son Nick Riewoldt. Picture: Michael Klein

Fiona was asked by Maddie Riewoldt’s Vision, the charity set up to honour her youngest child and raise crucial funds and awareness of the rare blood disease, to mark the third anniversary of her death.

So on the eve of the third Maddie’s Match, between St Kilda and Richmond next Friday at Etihad Stadium, Fiona has opened up about how her mother gave her the strength to carry on.

“I told Mum I was going to write something, and she said maybe she could help.”

So from her home in Hobart, Fay penned the two-page, heartfelt letter.

The letter written by Fiona Riewoldt to her daughter Maddie Riewoldt

“It was hard. You do it when you can find the right words,’’ Fay says.

This act of motherly love gave Fiona the strength to write to Maddie. And when it was time, the words flowed.

“I was sitting in the art room at the school I teach at early one morning. There was a beautiful sunrise over the bay, and I sat there and it just came out,’’ she recalls.

“I just wanted Maddie to know what an impact she’s had and that her struggle and pain was not in vain, something positive had to come of it.

“I don’t know how I would have coped without Mum.

“If she wasn’t coming to the hospital with me every day she’d be at home ironing or cooking a meal.

“I feel guilty that you’ve had to go through this Mum,’’ cries Fiona.

“That’s what mothers do,’’ says Fay.

Fiona and Maddie were best friends.

“We did everything together,’’ Fiona says.

“Every year we’d go to Nick’s house in Orford (Tasmania). We’d go over on the boat with the dog and have our special dinner together in the restaurant, beautiful Tassie produce, and Maddie would order red wine.

“We’d have our day at the hospital where she’d have transfusions, then our treat was to go to HuTong Dumpling Bar.

“We’d binge on TV. Once we stocked up on Ben and Jerry’s and spent the whole weekend in our pyjamas watching The O.C.

“Maddie loved her car; I drive it now. We’d be in the car and I’d sing, and she’d pull over and look at me: ‘Please, don’t spoil this. Don’t sing!’”

Maddie Riewoldt (left) with her mum Fiona Riewoldt and grandmother Fay Hean.

Fiona says that, as Maddie’s health deteriorated, “I was terrified the whole time and I couldn’t let her see that”.

“I promised Maddie she’d be all right, and that’s what I find so hard: I couldn’t keep my promise.”

Fay says watching her daughter lose her baby girl broke her heart.

“The hardest thing I’ve ever been through. Life hasn’t always been rosy but to see my daughter and my grandchild go through that … I hardly ever get upset, like I am now, but it’s devastating.

“I try to be hard because that really was the only way I could cope. I don’t think I ever cried in the hospital, I didn’t cry when she went. It was so peaceful for her, she was out of that terrible pain.

“I said to one of the sisters at the hospital one day, ‘That should be me in there, not Maddie,’ and she said, ‘It doesn’t work like that’.”

When in hospital, Maddie told her mum of plans to increase awareness of the insidious disease. She wanted to put on an event called Coffee with Josie in memory of a friend on the ward, a young mum, who died of the same disease.

Now Maddie has a football match in her honour.

Nick Riewoldt celebrates a goal during Maddie’s Match last year. Picture: Michael Klein

“I’m so proud of her. She didn’t get to live her life or have an amazing career but by God she’s making a difference in this world,” Fiona says.

“Maddie’s Match is incredible but it’s not just the big events. There have been little kids who give their pocket money; small communities, clubs and groups are amazing. Strangers stop us and know Maddie’s name or recognise the purple colour: they didn’t know her, but they know her story.

“We’re lucky we had a platform with Nick and (nephew and Richmond star) Jack, but Maddie’s captured people’s hearts because she was a normal young Aussie girl who loved the outdoors, her family and her dog.”

Fiona feels Maddie’s presence around her. She and husband Joe buy a special plant on Maddie’s anniversary. A beautiful potted magnolia on the back porch produces a single flower.

She credits sons Nick and Alex, and their wives Catherine and Roxy, for incredible strength, support and love. She is now a grandmother to Nick’s boys, James, 3, and William, 1, and Alex’s son, George, 1.

“James was a focus at a time where we were just floundering in there (hospital) with Maddie; he was a focus for her, too. She only met him once. He’s just a beautiful little boy and he talks about Maddie.

“Georgie’s such a sweetheart. You ask him where Maddie is and he points to her photo. That’s important to me. Will has got more than a bit of Maddie in him; he’s just like she was. As a baby, every time I picked him up he would look for this ring on the chain of my necklace. It was Maddie’s ring, and he would get it and raise it to my mouth to kiss it.

“Catherine and Roxy are beautiful women who keep Maddie part of everything they do in their family. I’m proud the boys keep Maddie front and centre. She is always mentioned in their prayers and around the dinner table.

“She will live on forever. I just miss her so desperately.”