There is no shortage of stories in the first episode of Dear singers. From Roxeanne’s hit song by Nelson to her father’s music that ‘pushed her down her throat’ to the point of nausea at home: it’s an evening of proverbial smile and tears. Roxanne also talks briefly about the period after her father’s death.

Roxanne experienced a “bad kind of homesickness” due to the trauma. This stems from her childhood. She was placed with strange families when Andre had to perform – for example, she once sat naked on her father’s sofa because she turned out to be a naked runner – and there was no way she could miss her parents. Her father’s death was very difficult for Rox.

“The biggest blow came when my father passed away, and my mother decided to write a book and my mother had not been with me for nine months,” Roxanne says frankly. “Just when you need it most to grieve. Every night I had a picture of my mom and dad with me, I would shout at them every night: ‘Please come back.'”

She says she received a “huge blow” from the event. “You hurt someone for the rest of their life with that. I am a grown woman, but it is very hard to sleep alone. Then I have a stomach ache and I don’t sleep. I vowed to never feel that way again.”

Dear singers It can be seen on NPO 1 Thursday at 8.35pm.