Susie Maroney won many admirers, including former Cuban president Fidel Castro, who died on November 25.
But, the former marathon swimmer sees her mother as the real hero in their family.
Pauline Maroney has retired after 55 years as a nurse, including 35 years at Sutherland Hospital and the last 10 years at Stella Maris Aged Care, Cronulla.
Mrs Maroney, whose husband Norm is a former assistant police commissioner, has also been kept busy with five children and 13 grandchildren.
“I am immensely proud of her,” said Susie, who lives nearby at Cronulla.
“Often, when we are out together, someone whom she looked after will come up to say hello.
”It is really nice she has done so much for the community, not just in her nursing career but also as a mother.
“If I can be half as good a mother, I will be happy.”
Mrs Maroney grew up in Canberra, where her father, the late Jim Odgers, was the highly respected Clerk of the Senate and author of an acclaimed book on the constitutional basis and procedures of the upper house.
At 17, she left home to train as a nurse at Sydney Hospital, which at that time was one of the state’s biggest.
Mrs Maroney has received many awards, including runner-up in the NSW Nurse of the Year award in 1985, and has published articles in nursing magazines.
Reflecting on changes during her career, Mrs Maroney said “one of the negatives is that they took the nurses out of hospital training and put them into universities”.
She said, while the ratio of practical training had increased, it was still not enough.
One of Mrs Maroney’s most memorable moments was, as a student nurse, starting CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) on a patient the first time the procedure was used at Sydney Hospital.
Mrs Maroney said, knowing she had made even a small difference in people’s lives was very satisfying.
In November, Susie married motivational speaker Perry Cross, who was rendered a quadriplegic by a rugby tackle in 1994 when he was 19.
It is the third marriage for Susie, who has three children, River, 4, Capri, 6, and Paris, 8.
One of her many swimming feats was recalled following the death of Fidel Castro at age 90.
In 1999, Castro presented the young Australian swimmer with a certificate of honour after she crossed from Jamaica to Cuba despite heavy seas whipped up by a hurricane.
The Cuban government declared Maroney a "heroine of world sport," following three marathon swims to and from the Caribbean island.
