IT was the death of her husband at just 47 years old that led Rita Ward to a career educating people about death and dying.
Rita was only 37 years old and had two teenage sons when her husband Jack died suddenly from undiagnosed pancreatic cancer.
While she was not angry at Jack’s dying, she was angry at the way she had been treated by medical professionals and her Irish-Russian blood called her to action.
Having moved her family from Dalgonally Station, near Julia Creek, to Townsville in Jack’s final months, Rita made the city her new home. She got a job as a receptionist at the Coolabah Hotel while she also trained as a Lifeline counsellor even before Lifeline was set up in Townsville.
“In 1976, I saw the Monday Conference program with Dr Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and realised she knew what I was trying to do,” Rita said.
“I understood she worked at a University Hospital in Chicago so I rang them only to find she had not been there for eight years, but they gave me her phone number.”
Rita called Dr Kubler-Ross, who insisted Rita come and visit her. With little money to spare, Rita applied for a Churchill Scholarship but did not get it.
The Lifeline Directors, Wayne Sanderson and Joan Innis-Reid, and the management board decided to take up a collection and fund Rita’s ticket to the USA to work with Kubler-Ross.
“So in October 1977 I went off to America with only a phone number to find where Elisabeth was.”
Rita found her and was the first Australian to attend one of her workshops and work with her.
During her trip to the US, Rita also visited many places in California that were doing the work she wanted to do.
“People were so generous with material and support for what I intended to do when I returned to Australia.”
Rita became a Counsellor Trainer with Lifeline, gave guest lectures at James Cook University and the Centre for Adult Education, and was elected President of the first Nurses Oncology Group in Townsville, which organised a seminar ‘Cancer, Who Cares’.
“The Cancer Fund did not like the idea of a non-nurse being President and came up to keep me quiet as I was getting a lot of publicity about what was not being done for cancer patients.
“I was encouraging families to demand pain relief and I worked with a team keeping people at home.
“I did all this without any professional pieces of paper, which did not go down too well with a lot of people. When I was asked what my credentials were, I always responded PWC and waited to be asked what that was. I then explained, Person Who Cares.”
In 1979, her sons had finished their apprenticeships and they all decided to go their separate ways, which led them all to Sydney – John playing footy for North’s, George to work as a mechanic for Rita’s brother and Rita as her brother’s bookkeeper.
A friend in Chicago invited Rita to attend two of her daughters’ weddings and spend a white Christmas with her family in 1980. Rita stayed three months and spent some more time with Kubler-Ross at her centre at Escondido in California.
“It was here that she asked me to set up her association in Australia and organise her tours and workshops, which I did for many years.”
While in America, Rita met a lady from Boston who arranged tickets for Rita to attend Ronald Reagan’s inauguration as President in Washington DC. The same lady also arranged for Rita to meet Ted Kennedy, Senator Carol Amick and Senator Barney Frank.
“Her best friend’s son flew the President’s helicopter so they took me everywhere.”
Back in Australia, Rita returned to work in the Palliative Care unit at Mt Carmel Hospital.
“We had 25 dying patients and their families – this was my university.”
In 1985, Rita moved back to Blackheath in the Blue Mountains to care for her father who was dying. She took this time to get herself some recognised credentials and completed a Graduated Diploma in Social Communication at the Hawkesbury Ag College (today, the University of Western Sydney).
“I had already given lectures at this college and liked the professor, who had set up the first self-directed learning in Australia.
“While caring for Dad and studying, I helped set up the Home Dying Support Group in Katoomba, gave lectures at the TAFE College, and also set up training in Long Bay Jail for the prisoners.”
After her father died in 1987, Rita moved to the Gold Coast the following year as her first grandchild was due to be born.
That same year, Dr Kubler-Ross gifted Rita aeroplane fares to America as a thank you for all Rita had done for her.
“When I returned to the Gold Coast, I had heard about this man called Arthur Earle, who owned the nursing home, four funeral parlours, the cemetery, the crematorium, and the flower shop. This guy sure had it all covered. He also owned half of Queensland.”
Out of the blue, Rita received a phone call from one of Earle’s staff members asking if she would work for him. Rita accepted and began work as an Education Officer.
“For the first time in my life, I got sacked from this job for calling him a dirty old man.”
It didn’t hold Rita down though as she fit in another two overseas trips to Europe and the UK in 1993 and 1995.
“I have made seven trips overseas and only ever paid for one; I decided I must be a good travelling companion.”
Apart from working for Arthur Earle on the Gold Coast, Rita also worked on the management committees of two hospices – Karuna and Hopewell – and worked as the Coordinator for Private Palliate Care Services in Brisbane.
“Again we supported people to die at home by providing registered nurses and carers. We also organised training programs for professionals and gave lectures whenever asked.”
Rita spent 1996 writing eight resource manuals on topics from Death and Dying, Grief and Loss to Understanding Anger and Caring for Self.
She was then headhunted to work at the Gold Coast Hospital where they were setting up a Palliative Care team and wanted Rita to train volunteers to work in the hospital and in homes.
“This was my first public service job and it took me a while to catch on. Many years later, the Medical Super, and wonderful man named Dr Brian Bell told me every time the phone went and it was me, he would shudder and wonder what it was I had done now. I left this job before I burned the hospital down.”
Rita’s final official employment before retirement was with Commonwealth Carers Respite as Volunteer Coordinator – “the best job I ever had and the most honest; the money was spent wisely and on the clients.”
In 2002, Rita was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for “service to the community, particularly through palliative care support groups” and a year later added the centenary medal for “distinguished service to elderly citizens in providing palliative care” to her mantle.
Upon her retirement in 2003 aged 67, Rita made a nostalgic trip back to western Queensland to visit the stations she had lived on.
“I found it a much changed country to the one I left in 1974.”
In 2004, Dr Kubler-Ross died and Rita travelled to Arizona to speak at her funeral.
Rita moved back to Townsville in 2006 as she “had eight sisters and always wanted to grow old with one of them.” She moved into a retirement village with her eldest sister, who recently moved to the Gold Coast to live with her daughter.
Today, Rita, 77, resides at Villa McAuley in Townsville, fighting battles not only for her, but also for others.
A boisterous advocate for the patient, Rita is one woman who will tell you; you do not need a university education to be educated in life.
