The incredible gift Bert Newton gave to a dying man during a hospital visit has been revealed after the secret was kept for 31 years.
The four-time gold Logie award-winning entertainer, who had a leg amputated in May due to a life-threatening infection, died at a private clinic in Melbourne on Saturday night.
On Monday, entertainment reporter Peter Ford said he was going to finally reveal a touching story about Newton he had waited three decades to tell.
Ford was told by his friend never to report the story until Newton had “carked it”.
“I thought, that is a rotten deal, you are never going to die!” Ford told The Morning Show on Monday.
Ford said in 1990 he had a friend who had AIDS and was dying in the Fairfield Infectious Disease hospital, with just weeks to live.
As his friend was a fan of showbusiness, Ford sent off cards to various celebrities asking if they would sign them and post them back.
All of the celebrities did so, except Newton.
“I thought, that’s a shame,” Ford said.
“Then five or six days later, I went to the hospital and there was a different buzz in the air.
“I asked what was going on and he said: ‘You won’t believe it, but Bert Newton has just left and has been here for hours’.”
Newton visited every single patient in the ward and sat with them to tell stories and make them laugh.
“I went into my friend who was suddenly energised and I looked across at the bedside table and, Bert had actually left one of his Gold Logies,” Ford said.
“I rang Bert and said: ‘I can’t believe you did that.’
“He said it’s OK, but he thinks he has broken some kind of Logie law by doing it, so you can never report it until the day I have gone.”
On Sunday morning, his wife Patti spoke outside the Newton’s family home in Hawthorn East about their final moments together.
“It’s very, very devastating. All our hearts are breaking because he was just the most wonderful man,” she said.
“I left at ten past seven, and I was just pulling around to come into my drive and I get the call to say he’d taken his last breath at 7.22pm.
“So I missed him, but maybe he didn’t want me to be there for his last breath.
“He had such a fabulous attitude. And he gave us so much joy right up to the end.”
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMif2h0dHBzOi8vN25ld3MuY29tLmF1L2VudGVydGFpbm1lbnQvdHYvYmVydC1uZXd0b24tZ2F2ZS1oaXMtZ29sZC1sb2dpZS10by1tYW4tZHlpbmctaW4tYWlkcy1ob3NwaXRhbC13YXJkLWR1cmluZy12aXNpdC1jLTQzODM5MDXSAQA?oc=5
2021-10-31 23:07:08Z
CAIiEBSF1vW4-vxAEgb1P0rAdboqMwgEKioIACIQAqTBzZHoEIrcyUrQUNXY6ioUCAoiEAKkwc2R6BCK3MlK0FDV2Oow-N7IBg
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar