What makes Linda Dessau tick?

The Honorable Linda Dessau AC, Governor of Victoria, was forced to “grow up quickly” when her mother died of cancer at the age of 17.

“For anyone who’s lost a parent, and many have lost them much earlier than that, there is an independence or resilience that you need to find from within, that most people, if they’re fortunate enough, don’t need to find that at that early age,” she said on What Makes You Tick?

She says the experience helped her empathise with children who faced similar circumstances in her work as a magistrate in the Children’s Court.

“It’s given me a real empathy for them,” she said.

“It is hard to grow up without that sort of parental support into your adult years.”

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Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images for the Commonwealth Games Federation