Stalwart leader at Ross Home
Nurse
BETTY Macara, who has died aged 103, used her interest in and care about people to keep up to date with a wide circle of friends and their families.
Miss Macara, a matron of Dunedin’s Ross Home through the 1970s, continued this interest until the week she died in April.
Even over the past few years, unable to see and confined to her bed and a chair as a Ross Home resident, she remained a detailed source of news about her family and what was happening in Opoho and at Opoho Presbyterian Church. And she continued to exemplify positivity and goodwill with everyone.
Miss Macara was born in October 1914, in Gore. She was the middle child of three and the only daughter of Duncan and Helen Macara.
Her father, the managing editor of the Mataura Ensign newspaper, died in 1921 when she was 6. Times were difficult for the family without a father and having to cope during the Depression years.
Nevertheless, Miss Macara told her nephew, Ian Macara, she had a happy and funfilled childhood in Gore.
Leaving school, she become a clerical worker and lived at home. She was the family breadwinner when her brothers went to World War 2.
She took leadership roles in Bible class and youth organisations in the church in Gore.
After her ailing mother and her grandmother, who had lived with the family, died within weeks of each other, she was free to apply to become a nurse in Dunedin.
Miss Macara left Wright Stephenson and Co to train at Dunedin Hospital in 1947.
In 1951 she went nursing with the Roslyn District Nursing Service, later saying she loved the people focus.
Ten years on she joined the staff at Ross Home as a nursing sister, a role which involved ‘‘everything’’, including overseeing nurses, sponging and bathing patients, giving injections, helping serve meals and helping with cleaning if shortstaffed.
In 1968, Miss Macara became ‘‘sister in charge’’, and then matron in 1970.
As matron, she lived in a flat above the main entrance way, where she could keep on eye on what was happening.
Her routine was to rise at 6.30am to see the night nurses before they went off duty. After breakfast she toured the wards. She worked weekends and had Thursdays off.
This was a long, stable period of professional leadership, in difficult times, according to the Rev Dr Simon Rae, who wrote a history of Ross Home for its 75th anniversary.
It was a time of staff shortages, with fewer livein staff, and senior staff often were called on for ‘‘handson’’ engagement in the care of residents, he said.
It was also a time of increased frailty of residents on admission.
‘‘Ross Home could have been eclipsed by newer homes being planned and built,’’ Dr Rae said. ‘‘But
Ross Home continued to set standards and make innovations.’’
Dr Rae said policy statements of the 1970s emphasised the place was a ‘‘home’’, as distinct from an institution.
‘‘Betty retired in 1979, with the respect, affection and appreciation of all who knew her.’’
Ross Home colleague Margaret Trainer said, at a memorial service for Miss Macara, that staff were like one big family.
There were also memories of Miss Macara buying ice creams for staff in the summer and of her taking a great interest in all staff.
She was ‘‘strict but fair’’,
another former staff member said.
Miss Macara encouraged staff, including some from overseas, to train as nurses. She became a surrogate mother for some.
She was earlier involved in the setting up of the Nurses Christian Fellowship, and postretirement participated with the Dunedin Stroke Club and its fortnightly meetings at Ross Home. She took an interest in the church’s overseas missions.
Miss Macara retired to Opoho (although she returned at one stage to help cover night shifts at Ross Home), embedding herself in the community and building close and warm relationships with near neighbours.
In the 1980s she ran an afternoon card group at her home, where her competitiveness and hospitality were displayed.
Her keen interest in her friends and their families astounded many.
‘‘We were always astonished that she knew exactly what everyone was up to, wherever in Dunedin, New Zealand or the world,’’ nephew Mr Macara said. ‘‘In this regard, she prided herself on her breath of knowledge and detail. It was very rare to catch her out, and we would always go to her for the latest news.’’
Mr Macara said his aunt became the family matriarch. She never married and in her later life joked she was an ‘‘unclaimed treasure’’.
She was taken to a greatniece’s basic student flat for dinner almost 10 years ago.
‘‘Betty took it all in her stride at age 94, enjoying the food and conversation, then on leaving — for good measure she gave them all a round of ‘constructive’ advice for their futures.’’
Miss Macara showed determined resilience through her long life, notably after an horrific accident in 2003.
Her hall nightstore electric heater fell on her (apparently unsecured after wallpaper was replaced), trapping her foot for four hours.
She was rescued only when Opoho postie Juanita Bremner heard cries and went to investigate.
Somehow, the postie gathered the strength to lift the brick-filled heater enough to free Miss Macara, who had received severe burns and was sent to Burwood Hospital in Christchurch. Two toes were amputated.
This restricted her mobility and prevented her driving. It was a blow to her fierce independence, not that she ever complained.
Later, in her late 90s, she lost her sight, losing also the chance to complete the Otago Daily
Times Code Cracker first thing each morning and the opportunity to keep up to date with local news through the newspaper.
She maintained throughout her positivity, loyalty, gratitude, insight, dedication and love of a good laugh — as well as her wide range of close social contacts. — Philip Somerville