An elderly Canberra woman whose daughter allegedly stabbed her in the chest in an attempt to kill her was a "hollow soul" after the death of her husband and told her children she wanted to die, a court has heard.
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Mary Ivanisevic, 45, was charged with trying to murder her 74-year-old mother after the terminally ill woman was found on the floor of her Curtin home with a single knife wound on December 6, 2015.
Her ACT Supreme Court trial has centred around whether it was Ivanisevic who thrust the knife into her mother's chest, or the wound was self-inflicted.
Prosecutors allege the pair's relationship was volatile and Ivanisevic stabbed her mother before she drove to a nearby service station, ensuring she was captured on CCTV cameras, in an effort to create a false alibi.
They say the accused then returned home to find her mother still alive and forced her to record a fake confession on her mobile phone as a neighbour tried desperately to render first aid.
Ivanisevic has denied she attacked her mother - who has since died - and insists the woman stabbed herself.
Her brother, Marko Ivanisevic, said from the witness box on Wednesday his mother, Marija, who had end-stage lung disease and a history of mental illness, was "quite happy considering how sick she was" in the months leading up to the stabbing.
But her demeanour changed when her husband died suddenly on November 20 that year, less than three weeks before the incident, Mr Ivanisevic said, as he recalled watching her after his father's funeral.
"It was just like a hollow vessel, a hollow soul. She looked empty to me. I noticed a change, she wasn't the same person.
"She didn't want to live. She didn't want to be in this world. She wanted to be with her husband and she wished that she was dead."
He was aware Ivanisevic had been violent towards their mother in the past. But he and the accused shed tears in court when he said his sister cared for her "in every possible way, every day".
"[Mary] cared for her, bathed her, washed her, fed her."
After the stabbing, she told her son more than once "she'd done it to herself", he said.
"She said because she wanted to be with Dad."
Defence lawyer Kylie Weston-Scheuber: "During those conversations did did she continue to say that she'd stabbed herself?"
Mr Ivanisevic: "Yes".
Dr Weston-Scheuber: "Did she ever say that Mary had done it?"
Mr Ivanisevic: "Never."
He refuted suggestions from prosecutor Anthony Williamson, who was given permission to cross-examine the Crown witness, that his mother had never spoken about killing herself before.
Mr Ivanisevic also defended his actions in not including in his statement that she attempted suicide previously, saying he "didn't like talking to police".
"This is about my mother. I don't believe this is about my sister, it's about my mother and the truth has to come out."
One of Ivanisevic's sister's told the court their mother became withdrawn, depressed and sad and spoke of taking her own life after her husband's death.
"On the day of my dad's funeral, when they were putting the coffin down, my mother said she would be there soon."
She said her mother told her she stabbed herself.
The jury is expected to hear closing submissions in the trial on Thursday.
