A CRIPPLED SYSTEM

Try to put yourself in  Eddie Travaglia’s shoes. You can’t. I couldn’t. You probably don’t even know who he is. Or was. I say ‘was’ because Eddie killed himself on Sunday. He also killed his two sons.  So Eddie goes to his grave and into history as a murderer. In normal circumstances I would say good riddance.

And probably rail against the arrogance and selfishness of a father who would decide that if he were to die his sons couldn’t live without him. And so, with no permission from them, he makes the fatal decision to end their lives too.

But it’s not that simple with Eddie Travaglia. He loved his boys, He cared desperately about Leigh aged 30 and David aged 27. Both had cerebral palsy, both were deaf, and both were confined to life in wheelchairs.

And when Eddie was diagnosed with prostate cancer he put his sons in his car, turned on the motor and gassed all three of them.

You could say that the Travaglia sons were being looked after. The Department of Human Services issued a cold an impersonal statement to that effect yesterday. It said the victims were ‘two adult men who were receiving residential support and comprehensive services from a community housing organisation’.

How good was that support?  Eddie had raised a number of concerns about their welfare. He’d complained to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. When mediation failed he went to the Federal Court.

God knows what went through his mind when he thought he was dying and there’d be nobody around to fight for his sons wellbeing. It’s a nightmare that faces all parents of disabled children as they grow to adulthood and their ageing mothers and fathers face their own mortality. It faces some children, especially only children, with an ageing and ailing parent.

I don’t have the answers. And obviously a tortured Eddie Travaglia didn’t either. Except one.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2009