Anthony Albanese made an emotional and solitary pilgrimage to his mother’s grave last night on the 20th anniversary of her death, as soon as he returned from Tokyo.
The new Prime Minister made a late night run to the cemetery on Wednesday as his return flight from the Quad summit landed in Sydney.
“I traveled to the cemetery to see her and chat,” he told Nine’s Today show host Karl Stefanovic. ‘It was a big problem.
‘It was a private moment. I went there alone.
Albanese, 59, was raised by his disabled single mother, Maryanne, in a housing commission house in Camperdown, in Sydney’s inner west.
Her mother suffered an aneurysm and collapsed in the home’s laundry room on Mother’s Day 2002. She died in the hospital two weeks later, on May 25, 2002.
“Mom always gave me unconditional love,” Albanese previously said. ‘Mum had rheumatoid arthritis which paralyzed her joints and prevented her from working.
‘I lived on a disability pension. Life wasn’t easy and her health made things even more difficult, but we got through it thanks to her.
‘And I feel very privileged to have had that. Moms are really special.”
Anthony Albanese made an emotional and solitary pilgrimage to his mother’s grave last night on the 20th anniversary of her death, as soon as he returned from Tokyo.
Daily Mail Australia has been given an exclusive look behind the door of the humble home where the Prime Minister grew up in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.
As a child, the new prime minister may have lain in his bed, staring at the ceiling and dreaming of the day he would rule the country.
Now he does it.
And although his posters of The Saints, The Cure and Midnight Oil are no longer on his walls, his teenage bedroom would still be immediately recognizable to him.
While his posters of The Saints, The Cure and Midnight Oil are no longer on his walls, Anthony Albanese’s childhood bedroom would still be immediately recognizable to him.
His bedroom, one of three upstairs, opened onto a balcony that had been converted into a sunroom/study overlooking neighboring backyards.
On the ground floor there is a living room that overlooks the sidewalk of busy Pyrmont Bridge Road, while the spacious kitchen leads to a generous laundry room and accesses the compact concrete-paved rear patio.
The building was part of a development intended to give workers access to an affordable rented family home close to the city with a backyard for children to play safely.
The complex of 20 honey-coloured brick houses is now heritage-listed, but suffered flooding in the recent floods, leaving the backyard and entrance covered in moss-covered seaweed.
The complex of 20 houses built of honey-colored bricks is now heritage-listed, but suffered flooding in the recent deluges, leaving the concrete slab backyard and entrance covered in moss-covered algae.
Albo’s old house is almost exactly as it was when he lived there between 1963 and 1990.
‘We lived in council housing, which gave us a feeling of security and stability. “It was our house,” Mr. Albanese admitted last year.
“When they tried to sell our council house, we felt like they were taking our house away from us.”
However, the two-story, three-bedroom house, built in 1927, remained public housing and remains so today.
Current tenant Roza Yakubova is determined to keep it as it was to honor his memory and has tried to keep it as original as possible.
He has removed the painted floorboards to restore them to the beautiful polished finish that Mr. Albanese would remember from his days there.
Current tenant Roza Yakubova is determined to keep it as it was to honor his memory and has tried to keep it as original as possible. She has removed the painted floorboards to restore them to the beautiful polished finish that Anthony Albanese would remember from her days there.
Anthony Albanese’s Camperdown upbringing is a far cry from the life of luxury he will now enjoy as Prime Minister at Kirribilli House on Sydney’s north shore and The Lodge in Canberra.
But it is a far cry from the life of luxury Albanese will now enjoy as Prime Minister at Kirribilli House on Sydney’s north shore and The Lodge in Canberra.
Albanese told Stefanovic: ‘I hope (my story) gives hope to people, whether they are single mothers or people who are going through difficulties in life and their children.
“I hope my journey encourages people a little, because it’s not about me, no one arrives alone.”
‘You get there because people believe in you. Because people support you.
“The neighbors who cooked my food when I was there as a student looked after me – that sense of community there was in Camperdown.”
Albanese moved in 1990 when he bought a house in Marrickville (and still lives on that same Marrickville street today), but he has never forgotten his roots.
And he says that sense of community was revealed when news of his election victory came over the weekend and his neighbors came out to celebrate with him.
Anthony Albanese (seen here with his dog Toto, his girlfriend Jodie Haydon and his son Nathan) says his neighbors came out to celebrate with him when news of his election victory came.
“That feeling was present on Saturday night when we left the house in Marrickville – it was reasonably late, around 11 o’clock,” he said.
“And it was like the whole neighborhood was in the street, just applauding the change of direction for this country.”
He revealed his son Nathan, 21, drank beers as they watched the results come in before taking center stage on stage alongside his dad at Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL Club as Albanese claimed victory.
“I was a little nervous on Saturday night,” the Prime Minister admitted. ‘He had a couple of beers before heading to the RSL.
“The rest of us were very responsible despite the pressure on Saturday.”
Anthony Albanese revealed his son Nathan, 21, drank beers as they watched the results come in before taking center stage on stage alongside his dad at Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL Club as Albanese claimed victory.