The transformation of Hazel Hawke Hazel Hawke is survived by her children, Sue, Stephen and Rosslyn and six grandchildren. The debilitating haze of Alzheimer's disease began its capricious descent on Hazel Hawke in 2001 and three years later she noted in typically laconic Australian style on her 75th birthday: "It's a bugger. It's just bad luck. It's an illness which is unpredictable, and when it comes you've just got to cope with it. It's like losing your skin or something. With a laugh, she added: "But, in fact, you lose some of your head ... your works." Hawke, whose former husband, Bob, was prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991, has died of complications with dementia aged 83, after "doing her bit" in the early stages to bring the insidious disease to national attention. Hazel Hawke in 1999. Her "bugger" remark was made at the launch of a book, Hazel's Journey: A personal experience of Alzheimer's, co-written by her daughter, Susan Pieters-Hawke, and Hazel Flynn. Earlier, in her 1992 book, My Own Life: An Autobiography, Hawke laid bare her life: her abortion in 1952 to help further her future husband's ambitions; the loss of her four-day-old child in 1963; her husband's heavy drinking and womanising; her own drinking; the heroin addiction of her daughter Roslyn; face-lifts in 1977 and 1989 to boost her self-esteem; and health problems. She had spent 38 years as a homemaker and mother of four children before emerging from the shadow of her former husband who was dubbed the "silver bodgie." Along the way she turned a once prickly demeanour - perhaps a legacy of her frustrations at home and in the shadow of a husband powering his way to leadership of the country - into a serene visage. Even before the Hawkes announced their separation in November 1994 and he married his biographer, Blanche D'Alpuget, in 1995, she won the admiration of the country with her courage, dignity and homespun appeal. Generally, this was seen in sharp contrast with the brilliant yet sometimes abrasive former president of the ACTU and former prime minister and his racy love life. As early as 1979, despairing of his heavy drinking and womanising, she had consulted lawyers about a divorce. In 1989, she turned to cosmetic surgery to raise her self-esteem, and three years later a benign tumour in her pituitary gland required surgery. It was the culmination of a run of ill-health, having been book-ended by other surgery for an ovarian cyst and a build-up of spinal fluids. Born in Perth to Edith (nee Clark) and James Masterson, an accountant, she grew up with her older sister, Edith, and left school at 15 to take a job with an electrical engineering firm as a shorthand typist-bookkeeper. Bob Hawke and his then wife, Hazel, on election night, 1990. She worked there for 11 years, and along the way, at a church fellowship Easter gathering, met her future husband, Bob, a law student at the University of Western Australia. She had been aware of him since the age of nine, when his mother directed a church play. They were engaged in 1950 and married on March 3, 1956. She had agreed to a lengthy engagement because he wanted to win a Rhodes scholarship, which required him to be single. This selflessness included having a "traumatic" abortion at age 23, after she fell pregnant to him in 1952. Two years after they married, the Hawkes moved to Melbourne with their first child, Susan, who was born in 1957. Stephen followed in 1959, and Rosslyn in 1960. At the same time, Bob was rising through Labor ranks and he eventually became president of the ACTU. After his election to Parliament in 1980, he spent much of his time in Canberra, and it was only after he became prime minister on March 11, 1983, did the family move to live at The Lodge. That lasted until he was replaced as prime minister by Paul Keating in December 1991. Throughout the marriage, with its many onerous demands, she remained the unwavering, supportive wife. She also gave of her time to community organisations, with one having special significance - SANDS (Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Support), of which she was patron. Her son, Robert James, was only four days old in 1963 when he died. In late 1994, as the end of her marriage was becoming public, she published her second book, A Little Bit Of Magic: Thoughts For Women, followed by Reflections on Marriage. Determined to show she was not a spurned wife, the day her former husband married D'Alpuget at Double Bay in Sydney in July 1995, she threw a party at what was to have been her dream home with Bob at Northbridge. Among her guests were two women she told author Bryce Courtenay she most admired, Wendy McCarthy, former chairwoman of the ABC, and Quentin Bryce, the current Governor-General. Hazel was always concerned not to be seen as a "bossy boots," yet quietly confident in her well-formed opinion. This was evident when she disagreed with Nancy Reagan over how to deal with the drug problem during a private meeting at the White House. She had worked and studied in the social policy area - as a long-term volunteer with the Brotherhood of St Laurence and then as secretary to the director of social policy, as well as a two-year diploma course in social welfare that was interrupted when her husband was elected prime minister. Her firm grasp of social welfare issues extended to the interest of indigenous Australians. She was also a prominent pro-choice advocate in Australia, drawing on her personal experience of having an illegal abortion. And, she was a patron of the arts. Her diverse involvement across the community was recognised in June 2001, when she was made an Officer of the Order of Australia. After her diagnosis with Alzheimer's she appeared in public with her family to help raise awareness of the disease before eventually having to enter high-level nursing care.