- Hawkins opens up about losing his mother Jennie in 2015
- He says it was ‘heartbreaking’ for him and his family.
- She wishes her children could have met their mother.
Geelong superstar Tom Hawkins has spoken about how his mother’s shocking death in 2015 is still impacting his family and how he wishes she had met his children.
Hawkins, 35, has tasted plenty of success during his glittering 356-game career, but it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for the triple premiership player.
After setting the Geelong record for most games played in the loss to GWS on Saturday, he admitted his toughest challenge to date has been dealing with the devastating loss of his mother Jennie to cancer in April 2015.
“When you suddenly lose a parent to illness, it’s tragic and heartbreaking for me and my family,” Hawkins told the Herald of the sun.
Tom Hawkins (pictured with his family) has spoken about how the loss of his mother remains the biggest challenge he has faced in his long and brilliant career.
The Geelong star’s mother Jennie (pictured together) lost her fight with cancer in April 2015.
“I’m lucky to have a lot of family here and teammates I’ve played with for a long time. I saw Stevie (Steve Johnson) just before.
“I think if you want to play for a long time, you have to be resilient, but you also need a lot of support.”
“That was the most significant period and challenge of my football career, but there have been other challenges: form and at the beginning, there are form challenges at the end, there are body challenges at times.
“I would love to take back the passing of my mother, but I have learned wonderful things through those challenges of form, injuries and adversity.”
Hawkins was particularly close to his mother and paid special tribute to her after scoring a goal against North Melbourne in 2015 by looking up at the sky and kissing her black armband.
The players mobbed Hawkins after his goal and his moving tribute, knowing what he had been going through.
“Your mom and dad have a big impact and particularly in my family, in the Le Deux and Hawkins family, we are very close and very, very close, we rely on each other a lot and we socialize a lot,” he said. .
“I love my family and now I have my own family, so it’s sad for many reasons.
Hawkins says he wishes his mother had had the opportunity to meet her children.
The soccer star says his mother is never far from his and his family’s minds. He keeps a photo of the two of them in her locker in Geelong (pictured)
“I would love for my children to be able to meet my mother, but they didn’t.”
‘We’re always thinking about her, aren’t we? Grandma Jen,” she told one of her daughters.
His Geelong teammate Steve Johnson also commented on how difficult that period was for his great teammate.
“That was a pretty difficult time for him because obviously players are close with their families, but he had a really special relationship with his mother, they were very, very close, that was obvious to anyone who knew him,” Johnson said.