Patti Newton has shared a touching post to mark her first Christmas without her late husband Bert Newton.
Bert passed away in October at the age of 83, after having had his leg amputated earlier in the year.
In Patti’s first post since November, she thanks fans who had sent her messages of love in light of Bert’s passing.
“The love that has been shown to Bert, from messages, thousands of cards, letters has been overwhelming. We just want to say ‘Thank You’.”
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“The empty hole and heartbreak I feel is enormous, I think I just loved him too much. Thank you again, he’d be so thrilled,” Patti wrote, alongside a photo of Bert with five of his grandchildren.
Bert had struggled with declining health for at least a decade, which included a bout of viral pneumonia back in 2011. A second battle with the virus saw him hospitalised in 2017.
After Patti had posted a picture of her husband in a hospital bed last November, fans were taken aback a few months later in May when news was shared of Bert’s leg amputation. It was a dramatic but necessitated action after docs told him that he could either lose his leg or die within months.
Speaking of the reason for his death, Patti explained that “it was complications with everything.”
“When you have a leg amputated you have to be on a lot of painkillers and Bert had had, just this year alone, he’s had eight procedures, which all involved anaesthetics and that affects you pretty badly.” She added: “Your whole system and just everything closes down really. That was all”, she said at the time.
In November, Melbourne venues paid respect to Newtown by dimming the lights of some of the city’s most famous theatres for one minute to celebrate his legacy.
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