How Steve Jobs's biological mother doesn't know he is dead as care home nurses believe dementia sufferer is too ill to be told

By Paul Bentley
Last updated at 7:45 AM on 15th October 2011

His death was one of the most widely publicised in recent history, filling newspapers and television schedules for days as fans worldwide united in grief.
Among the few people in the Western world, however, who will not have heard of Steve Jobs's passing, is perhaps the most important - his own mother.
Joanne Simpson, who reluctantly gave her son up for adoption after falling pregnant when she was a student, is seriously unwell in a nursing home in Los Angeles and has no idea her son has died, MailOnline can reveal.

Biological parents: Father John Jandali never met Jobs while it is thought mother Joanne Simpson does not know he has died

Sources close to the family said the Apple founder's biological mother, Joanne Simpson, 79, is tragically battling advanced dementia.
She has very limited mental capacity and is said barely to know who she is, let alone what has become of the son she gave away.
Jobs was adopted in 1955 after being born to Abdulfattah John Jandali, a Syrian man, and Joanne Schieble, who was a graduate student at the time.
The couple were not married and keeping him would have been deemed shameful by their communities.
Brought up by Paul and Clara Jobs, Steve is thought to have reconciled with his mother but never to have made contact with his biological father.

Genius: The Apple founder completely revolutionised the way we communicate

In his renowned 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, Jobs described how his mother signed the adoption papers reluctantly, wanting to give him away to a well-educated couple.
Paul Jobs was a high-school drop-out who became a machinist and his wife Clara never graduated from college.

 

Joanne Simpson eventually married Jandali and the couple had another child, Mona Simpson, who went on to become a famous novelist, before getting divorced. She later remarried.
'My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student,' Jobs said in his speech.

Deteriorating: The Berkley East Convalescent Hospital in Los Angeles, where Steve Jobs's birth mother, who has dementia, is being looked after

'She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates.'
When he grew up, Jobs found his mother and the two kept in touch. He also forged a relationship with his biological sister.
Despite the reconciliation, Simpson's dementia is so serious she has no idea about her son's death.
Her condition has so far deteriorated she is said briefly to have been admitted to a mental hospital after neighbours reported seeing her wandering the streets half naked.

Frail: Jobs was photographed in August looking very unwell

A source said: 'Steve was one of the richest men in the world, but his wealth couldn’t save him and it couldn’t save his mother.
'We used to find her wondering the streets wearing only a house coat with nothing underneath and sometimes we would find her wearing barely anything climbing trees in her bare feet.
'In the end someone dropped her at a mental hospital as they were so concerned for her wellbeing and then when her daughter found out they eventually moved her to a nursing home.
'She was a lovely woman so it was very hard to see her demise. Now she is locked in her own body and barely knows who she is let alone Steve anymore.'
Jobs knew about his birth mother's mental condition and is said secretly to have helped her financially.
'They had reconnected in later life and it must have been so sad for Steve watching his mum lose her mind , knowing there was nothing he could do about it,' the source added.
'It was like a double heartache as there was nothing he could do about his condition either in the end.