SUSIE MARONEY 'We had an unbreakable bond'

After her mother died, Susie Maroney found her diaries. Five years later, the champion marathon swimmer shares what she read there, and the impact it's had on her life.

- JENNY BROWN

Overwhelmed, marathon swimmer Susie Maroney cried all day. So many poignant memories resurfaced when she found a forgotten plastic storage box full of yellowed newspaper cuttings, medical notes, letters, scrapbooks and other family keepsakes, including her late mother’s diaries. When she first read them, a year after Pauline’s death, it felt almost as if her beloved mum was still alive and sharing her heartfelt struggle to give precious twins Susie and Sean – both born with cerebral palsy – the best future possible.

Day after day, month by month, year in and year out, she had meticulously documented every medical appointment, every milestone missed or triumphantly celebrated since their premature arrival in November 1974.

“I just couldn’t stop reading,” says Susie, who grew up to become one of the world’s greatest ocean swimmers, despite her early disability.

“Mum’s diaries brought it all back. Rolling on a ball in rehab, how we had to have different shoes in kindy – things like that…

“We couldn’t walk for quite a while. Sean was floppy and I was so stiff on my right side that I couldn’t turn my head. To think, even swimming was tough when we first started. But we made so many strides through Mum’s knowledge and determination.”