It was 6am this morning when “darling Maggie” left us, her daughter Brooke Tabberer tells me. She was surrounded by her family, daughters Brooke and Amanda and her beloved grandson Marco.
“Maggie was very happy, very comfortable and most important of all in no pain,” shares her daughter Amanda who lived with Maggie at their home in Sydney.
“It was just her time and Maggie knew that.”
The Weekly fashion icon and cover star had health issues for a while. In the past few weeks, they became more acute.
Marco, who lives in Italy, always comes over at this time of year to celebrate Maggie’s birthday — she would have been 88 on December 11. But when the family realised Maggie was failing, he rushed over earlier than planned to spend quality time with his grandmother.
“I said ‘Look Maggie Marco is here’ and we saw that wonderful little smile of hers and the twinkle in her eyes,” shares Amanda.
“They talked a lot in the past weeks and Marco rigged up her room to have ‘Bosa Nova’ music playing on Spotify through the TV. The treasure of that music was special for Maggie and all of us.”
Maggie Tabberer was very much a local celebrity in the community where she lived. On her morning walks up the road would regularly be stopped by fans.
“The greengrocer has the last two covers of The Weekly up on the wall. Maggie had signed them for him. He was so proud to have them,” says Brooke.
Maggie and I have talked at length about what really matters in life over the last decade for her exclusive interviews in The Weekly and then in our frequent phone chats …and she always said the best life was “all about family, friends and laughter”.
She had that right to the end.
