72 marieclaire.com.au
JENNA AGIUS; INSTAGRAM/@LAURACSORTANThe Sydney performer
(seen here with Fani on
her wedding day) is
currently touring her show
The Sydney performer is best known Effie The Virgin Bride.
for bringing countless laughs via her
Effie character, but darker days
descended in 2005 when Mary was
told she wouldn’t be able to conceive
a child naturally. She spent the next
decade undergoing an unbelievable
23 rounds of IVF – and the heart-
breaking stillbirth of her daughter,
Stevie. On her 23rd attempt, she
miraculously fell pregnant and then
in November 2013, Mary and her
husband George welcomed the
arrival of their daughter, Jamie.
Here, the 52-year-old writes to her
own mother, Fani.Darling Boo Boo,
Thank you for being my
mother and my teacher. Thank you for
showing me that real success in life is
measured by how much we have loved.
And how loved we have been as a result.
Your young ambitious heart was
proof that I too could achieve all that
I wished for myself. You left Greece on
your own at 18 because you knew there
had to be more for you in the world
than the small village you were born in.
You cried yourself to sleep for the first
two years of being here but you did not
and would not give up.“YOU GAVE ME
THE STRENGTH
I NEEDED TO
BECOME A
MOTHER MYSELF”- Mary Coustas,
comedian and writer
Mary xxxhow heavy your heart was. And you let
your optimism, humour and spirit steer
you away from bitterness or self-pity.
You are incredible. You have loved
so successfully and unconditionally in
your lifetime. And I know and have
always known, that your dreams for
me, were not the ones I had for myself.
Yet without skipping a beat you sup-
ported me through all I chose to do.
You encouraged my independence.
And yet somehow still
managed to be there
when I needed you most.
You trusted me no mat-
ter how bleak the odds I
faced were. Both in my
career and my dec-
ade-long odyssey to
become a mother.
Your maternal and
unwavering magic sustained me
through 23 IVFs and the immense
losses along the way. And when I was
running out of faith you whispered,
‘If anyone can do this, it’s you.’
And I did. Because of you. Thank
you for showing me the way.“Your maternal
and unwavering
magic sustained
me through
23 IVFs”At 21, maybe by chance or maybe
not, you married a man who you
remembered seeing once as a 16-year-
old on a bus back in Greece. Steve
was a soldier and the most handsome
man you’d ever seen. You said he ‘had
a face like cotton wool’. Which appar-
ently was good.
At 22, you gave birth to your
first child, Con; it was the year before
I was born. And that was the year my
father had his first
heart attack. It would
be the first of many.
For the next 25
years he fought for his
life. And you stood by
him. You were strong.
And it was that strength
that helped keep him
alive. You never, even for
a minute, let the overwhelming fear
of losing him diminish him. You. Or us.
But death cannot be deceived
forever. And at 48 you were widowed.
Whatever loss or hardship you
have incurred in life you are content
with who you were in the face of it. You
lifted your head up high, no matterMary’s mother Fani has
always been there for
her, in both her personal
and professional life.