Hollow Hearts: Mac, Dorothy and Me

By Alison Mortimer | ISBN 9780648825982

On Australia Day 2016, Mac was the recipient of an Order of Australia Medal for services to the community. By Australia Day 2017, just one year later, he was the victim of a vicious assault, which left him fighting for his life.

Mac was 88 years old at the time and the assault occurred in residential aged care. Hollow Hearts chronicles the aged care system’s response that threatened his very survival, whilst championing the human responses, which saved his life. The police, magistrate, the politicians, the media who called out and the community who rallied in response.

Hollow Hearts is written by Mac’s legal guardian, his niece, Alison Mortimer. Her role was to protect a “local character”, yet she could not save him from his reality, “a vulnerable senior”. Seemingly plucked from her otherwise ordinary life by a series of events, with faith at times her only guide, this is a journey through despair to healing.

Endorsements:

“I am proud of the fact that you chose to champion the cause of your Uncle Mac….sometimes a voice in the wilderness is the loudest voice for all”
Retired Chief Inspector Trent Le Merton

“This book begins with an assault within an aged care facility on a dignified man who deserved to be nurtured in his remaining days. One woman, who could not turn her back on this hidden abuse fought to have the system changed. The psychological cost of her efforts and the battle she waged both for Mac and her own health takes the reader on her personal journey while never giving up on finding justice for Mac and his contemporaries. It is a powerful account of courage, perseverance and eventual success”.
Author and Educator John Frew

“What happened was not a reportable assault, but that’s the point: it makes it possible for resident-on-resident abuse to fly under the radar”.
Policy Manager Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Paul Versteege

About the Author:
Alison Mortimer is happily married with two adult children. Her working life has included school teaching, years as a Tour Manager in Europe, educational publishing and also self-employment as a consultant to Government. Born in rural NSW, it is the “bush” that informs her values.

Service to the community is her passion and her role as a Senior Manager in Local Government with volunteer work in her local community defined her days. This is her first book.