The daughter of footy icon Steve Mortimer has delivered a heartbreaking ode to her dad, revealing how hard his dementia diagnosis has been on the family as they watch him slip away from them ‘bit by bit’.
Mortimer was one of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs’ greatest players, captaining the club to premierships in 1984 and 1985 during a dominant era.
A brilliant halfback, he also represented New South Wales and Australia, playing a key role in State of Origin during the 1980s.
Mortimer, who is nicknamed ‘Turvey’, is also a devoted family man to his wife Karen and children Erin, Matthew and Andrew.
However, repeated head knocks during his playing days came back to haunt the Bulldogs great, with the family announcing in 2021 that he was suffering from a form of dementia.
When he had more clarity back then, Mortimer led calls for rugby league to reform its attitude to head-high tackles, but now requires fulltime care in a Sydney nursing home as his condition has declined significantly.
Erin Mortimer has spoken out about the challenges her family faced caring for her father Steven (pictured together) who was diagnosed with dementia in 2021
Erin (pictured)
Mortimer (pictured after a NSW Blues victory in 1985) was a champion at club and Origin level but repeated head knocks came back to haunt him
The Piano is an ABC series where amateur pianists perform on public pianos in busy locations, unaware they are being judged. Hosted by Amanda Keller, the show features experts including Guy Sebastian and Andrea Lam.
Mortimer’s daughter Erin was a guest in the first episode of the second season, featuring the song she wrote for her dad, ‘Lullaby for the Old Man’.
She spoke lovingly about the impact Mortimer, now 69, had on the family’s lives as she was growing up.
‘Every Christmas, or barbecue or family gathering, he was always with the kids, making the fun happen and [was] often the man behind the old home videos,’ she said.
‘He was always wondering what he could do for you, could he drive you here, could he do that, he was ultimately nicknamed “The Mother Hen”.
‘The hardest part about loving someone with dementia is just seeing someone that was just a superhero to you, to see that slowly get taken away from you, bit by bit, and to see them end up in such a vulnerable state, and him being in a room now which isn’t home. That’s hard.’
Erin has always been musically gifted, but she really leaned into singing and songwriting as a coping mechanism for dealing with the family tragedy.
‘In some ways, he’s somewhat young still to be having this condition,’ she said.
Erin said that Mortimer her been her ‘superhero’ her whole life and described the heartbreak of watching him slip away before her eyes
Erin wrote a song called ‘Lullaby for the Old Man’ in honour of Mortimer and performed it on the show
‘It’s heartbreaking because we start to see him unbecome a carer. And it can be really tricky sometimes.
‘Songwriting has been a godsend because it has been a wonderful way of processing a lot of it.
‘When you’ve got someone that’s still very much here, but not really here.
‘It’s wonderful, just to have that tool and I’m so grateful that I can still go to the piano and sit down and put words down, cheers-ing to the man that he was.’
Erin performed her ode to her father in front of a live audience, bravely maintaining her composure while tears tumbled down her mother Karen’s face.
‘The title itself, being a lullaby, is because I sing my kids to sleep,’ Erin said.
‘My dad would actually sing me to sleep.’
‘This is definitely the long goodbye,’ Karen said.
‘But I think, for me, I know he is still there, inside. His soul is still very active.’
Erin then spoke about what she would say to her father if she knew he could understand.
‘If I could have one more clear conversation with my dad, I would just say thank you,’ she said.
‘Because mate, you did good. And I love him so much.’
