A MOTHER, wife and firefighter will be farewelled in Albury on Friday after losing her fight with motor neurone disease.
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Tonia Oswald-Sealy, 46, passed away on Saturday after being diagnosed with the illness in October 2013.
Ms Oswald-Sealy was the first female firefighter to work full time in regional NSW, working out of the Albury central station in Mate Street from 2003.
The keen snowboarder and firefighter was always active and full of life, which made her decline hard for loved ones to see.
Firefighters will form a guard of honour outside the Hossack funeral home in Albury after Friday morning’s service.
Firefighter Simon Huggett said it had been hard to see someone who was once so fit and energetic slowly be impacted by motor neurone disease.
Her mother, Jenny, said the disease was “horrible”. “It reduced her to being unable to speak and move,” she said.
“It was just a sort of disintegration, except for her mind, which was still very active.”
Ms Oswald-Sealy grew up in Sydney before moving to the Border region to attend university.
She first noticed problems with her hands in 2008, which gradually began to spread.
Jenny said she was reluctant to say her daughter’s passing was a relief, given she was in palliative care for her final two months.
“I don’t like to say that, but in a way it was,” she said.
Her greatest fear was missing out on watching her daughter Jess, then aged two, grow up.
She spoke of the need to raise money to research MND.
Top-ranking Fire and Rescue NSW staff will attend Ms Oswald-Sealy’s funeral and present a memorial to Jessica, now aged four.
Her husband, James Browne, is also an Albury firefighter.
Mr Huggard said the brigade would look at a permanent memorial for their late colleague.
“She was a fantastic person to have on shift,” he said.
“When she joined the fire brigade it was a boys’ club.
“A lot of the old hard heads thought the fire station was no place for women, that they were not physically up to it.
“She proved them wrong.
“She was a much better firie than a lot of the blokes I served with.
“The mood is pretty sad.
“Her death was expected and she was obviously suffering a lot.
“I think the general mood is that people are glad she’s no longer in pain, but also grief at the fact such a wonderful person is not here any more.”
