SYDNEY — Blanche d’Alpuget, acclaimed Australian writer and widow of former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, has died at the age of 82.
D’Alpuget died from complications arising from influenza, according to her family.
In a final statement released by the family, she said: “Our highest calling and greatest achievement is love, the rule of life. Love one another.”
Her family described her as a woman who lived entirely on her own terms, saying they would “miss her force, her humour, her curiosity and her love beyond measure.”
“Blanche wrote and lived entirely on her own terms. She was full of vitality, generosity and curiosity, with an extraordinary appetite for beauty, ideas, history, new places and spirited conversation,” the family said.
