Love, Loss, and the Lessons in Between: Meet Susannah
Susannah and her boys: Four sons, countless adventures
As Susannah Ritchie was learning how to be a mother, she was also preparing to say goodbye to her own.
Just 24 hours after arriving home from hospital with her and husband Ed Smelt’s newborn, Susannah's beloved mum was diagnosed with an aggressive form of motor neurone disease.
Five months later, she passed away.
The timing felt impossibly cruel.
But profound grief, Susannah would come to learn, is shaped by extraordinary love.
And in time, the perspective she gained through loss became a quiet, constant reminder of her mum’s legacy.
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Her mum, Dr. Mickey Dewar OAM, was a highly regarded Territory historian, author, and curator, remembered for her lasting contributions to the Northern Territory’s cultural heritage.
Among her most enduring achievements was curating the iconic Cyclone Tracy exhibition at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, alongside a prolific body of books and articles.
Like many Top End stories, Mickey’s began when she arrived in Darwin in the early 1980s to work as a teacher.
She fell in love with the city and never left.
Mickey with baby Teddy
It is not lost on Susannah, that much of Darwin’s history has remained alive and accessible to future generations through the work of her mum.
“There is a beautiful poignancy about growing up here, learning about our history of which my mum was so very much involved with but also recognising the need for change.
“And I think Darwin does that well, keeping some of its old charm, but also embracing the importance of progress as well. Mum loved that about Darwin too.”
Susannah recalls many of her earliest and fondest memories interweave Mickey and ‘old Darwin’.
These were years marked by glorious sunny weekends at the ‘famous’ green and yellow Parap waterslides, and after school spent at Casuarina and Nightcliff Swimming pools, where her mum had been an avid swimmer.
“So many of my memories of mum are at swimming pools in Darwin, especially the old Casuarina swimming pool – the old version, long before it had its renovation!
“There is an old mural that became quite synonymous with the pool in the 80s, and many people would think the brunette lady in the painting was my mum given how much time she spent in the water there.
“A lot of my early memories are of Nightcliff swimming pool too. We spent many afternoons there in the beautiful kids’ pool that still exists today with its old mosaic tiles, goanna and fountain.
“Special memories of old Darwin.”
After finishing high school, Susannah moved to Melbourne where she completed an Arts degree, followed by a PhD and a Master of Teaching.
She also found love in a big city.
Susannah and Ed
“Ed was a country boy growing up in Bendigo, and I met him via mutual friends, at a house party of course. I just remember thinking ‘oh my gosh, what a lovely, good-looking and absolutely hilarious man.’
“After a couple of years of going out with more conservative boys who didn’t read books, I was determined to meet someone who was aligned more with my interests, so when he said he was reading a biography on Malcolm Fraser (former Liberal Prime Minister) I was immediately delighted but also concerned.
“But, as it turns out, he was the Labor voting engineer of my dreams - who also loved to read political biographies,” she laughs.
It would be 16 years before Susannah moved back home, with life bringing things full circle and the couple settling in Nightcliff - where her mum and dad had lived when Mickey passed away.
It’s also the suburb where Ed is currently standing as a candidate in the upcoming by-election.
Susannah and Ed were married 11 years ago
“Like me, Ed loves and believes in Darwin. He spent many years coming up with me from Melbourne to visit family, and was very much the driving force behind us coming home,” she says.
“I was born here, he wasn’t. But he chose Darwin, and I think this makes his connection to my home city quite special.
“The city you choose to make your home in is very important – and we’ve both chosen Darwin.”
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Born prematurely at just over 32 weeks gestation, Susannah and Ed’s firstborn, Teddy, had a precarious start to life born weighing just 1.8kg.
Susannah had undiagnosed pre-eclampsia and suffered an abrupted placenta, and required two emergency blood transfusions, with doctors unable to guarantee Teddy would survive the impending birth.
Following weeks in the Special Care Nursey at Melbourne’s Sandringham’s Hospital the couple brought their tiny baby home, just five days before Christmas.
Teddy was born at 32 weeks in Melbourne
But the happiness would come crushing down just a day later when the family learnt of Mickey’s condition.
“She’d been unwell, her speech had become so affected, and she’d been undergoing so many tests. She got her diagnosis the day after I came home from hospital, and I said to her ‘oh ok, this is fine, it isn’t a brain tumour, and we can deal with that’.
“But “I remember her saying “No, there are some things worse than that…”
During Mickey’s final weeks, Susannah remained a constant supportive for her mum.
“I was learning how to breastfeed while watching my mum die,” she says.
“But I am so incredibly grateful that I got to spend a lot of my time while on maternity leave sitting and talking with mum. During that time, she also imparted so much wisdom on me.
“One of the last things she wrote for me was to, ‘Eat the hot chips and drink the champagne.’ It was such an important reminder to enjoy the time you do have and try not to worry about the small things.
“Mum dying changed mine and Ed’s lives.
“It is a profoundly difficult, yet incredibly beautiful time to care for someone when they are dying.
“Nothing makes you grow up faster like learning how to be a mother to a little baby and while at the same time saying goodbye to your own.
“I think about my Mum everyday – I feel so grateful that I was lucky enough to have a wonderful Mum for 31 years. Her dying at 61 has taught me not to take anything for granted”.
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Not that Susannah and Ed take much for granted these days.
They are now parents to four young boys, aged 9, 7 and twins 3.5 years old.
It is a busy, beautiful life and she credits her village, which includes her dad David Ritchie and his wife Janet, plus her brother and his wife who are both doctors, who all live within a couple of streets of each other in Nightcliff.
She also works as an English teacher at Haileybury Rendall School, is training for the Gold Coast Half-Marathon in July and is still a regular swimmer.
And if life isn’t hectic enough, there is a small thing like an upcoming Territory bi-election.
Not that public life is new for the family - Ed has been a local councillor with the City of Darwin for the past five years.
“Of course, life is busy, but you know everyone is busy – I have friends who are studying – they are busy! I have other friends who are working long-shifts at the hospital they are busy!
“But one of the things I took from mum’s death is to follow your passions – no regrets.
“My Mum loved the Territory and she had a lot of friends on both sides of politics. She always said ‘good people should put up their hand and run for politics’.
“And she was so proud that she got to live in Nightcliff … I know she’d be enjoying this all.”
Susannah, Ed and their boys - living in Nightcliff and loving raising their boys in Darwin
Teddy not so little anymore!