Amanda Keller shares heartbreaking family news
Amanda Keller has spoken candidly about her family's difficult health battle, as she revealed her husband has been diagnosed with Parkinson's.
The radio host announced that her husband, Harley, has been privately battling the life-altering disease for six years, as she opened up about the struggle for the first time.
On Thursday’s episode of her new Double A Chattery podcast, the 61-year-old shared the first signs something with not quite right with her husband, who she has been married to since 1989.
“I first noticed Harley’s footfall around the house changing, like he was dragging his leg, and his hands started to shake, and he said he’d just been whacked in the thumbs as a wicket keeper playing cricket, but I felt something was going on,” Keller told her podcast co-host, forensic psychologist Anita McGregor.
“I know Harley so well, and how protective he is of his inner core, he was absolutely scared and in denial, and who would blame him.”
After the initial symptoms began, Harley was given the diagnosis of Parkinson's, which shocked the family to the core.
“When he came home [from the doctor], we both just sat there completely numb,” Keller remembered.
“Two days later, I went with our eldest son Liam to an open day – he was in Year 11 – and I fought tears all day just looking at these people at the beginning of their journey, and I was so envious.
“I had such a flashback to when that was me. And I thought, ‘Their journey is just starting.’ And something closed off for me."
“I don’t necessarily feel that now, but this is how I felt in the early days.”
Keller went on to say her initial reaction was to be “cross” with her husband, as she would attempt to correct his posture and speech.
“All the things that it [Parkinson’s] does [to you], I thought, ‘why isn’t he fighting it?’ And of course I’ve come to see he can’t control this, and neither can I, and that’s been a big lesson for me. So I’ve become kinder, and sadder,” she said.
“[I’ve changed] trying not to feel like I have to control it. Because it’ll kill me. And he doesn’t want that.”
The radio host admitted she sometimes "hates herself" for being frustrated with her husband, while also mourning their life before his diagnosis.
“I miss the ease of life. Of going to a restaurant, [but then] Harley’s back gets sore, and he’s quietly spoken so the noise overwhelms him. I miss the ease of travel. It changes us,” she said.
“But we’re not alone in that. Life is this stuff, isn’t it? We talk a lot about long-term relationships, and how popular culture celebrates the beginning and the end."
“But the meat of life, the joy of life, the sadness of life, the true human condition, lies in the middle.”
Image credits: Instagram