She was ‘always seeking the good in people’
For decades, Emily Johnston often made the 8-kilometre drive on Saturdays to her local church in the North Canterbury town of Oxford to clean the pews and change the flowers.
St Andrew’s Church was overflowing for her funeral. Mourners spilled outside and packed the hall, more than 300-strong to pay their respects to a woman whose ‘‘infectious laugh’’ and ‘‘magnetic smile’’ touched many in the community.
The turnout reflected her involvement in numerous groups and clubs, many of which she sat on the committee for or had been president of, and the strong friendships she forged throughout North Canterbury, on either side of the Waimakariri River.
A modest woman, she was described by friends and family as gracious, kind and in possession of a razor-sharp intellect – one that came to the fore during monthly meetings of the Oxford book group she was instrumental in founding.
Emily Rose Johnston, nee Studholme, was born on August 27, 1941, in Waimate, a descendent of the first European settlers in the area. She died, aged 76, at her home in Ashley Gorge on November 14.
Her great-grandparents Michael and Effie Studholme made the four-day journey from Christchurch to Waimate on horseback in 1854, where they established the enormous Te Waimate run.
Emmie – as she was known to family and friends – grew up on a portion of the farm that stayed in the family. A keen horsewoman herself, she was homeschooled by her grandmother, Nancy Studholme, until the age of 8.
It was from Nancy that Emily acquired her enduring love of literature. Her husband, Robert Johnston, described her as someone with an immense vocabulary who would get through books at the speed of light.
The couple met in Christchurch in the late 1950s after Emily had done her training as a Karitane nurse in Cashmere, a role that had her travel throughout rural Canterbury looking after young children.
Not long after they first met, Emily went to England for more than two years on her OE. The couple reconnected after her return, when she was working at the Whitcombe and Tombs book store, and were married in Waimate in 1965.
‘‘In 52 years of marriage I never heard her talk of anyone in a critical way. She was always looking for good in people. She was kind and she was thoughtful and she was generous, and she was always interested in what the other person was doing,’’ Robert Johnston said.
After they were married, Emily moved with her new husband to his family farm, Ashley Gorge station.
She cooked for the farmhands, did the bookwork, and created a colourful and beautiful garden full of roses, azaleas and rhododendrons.
Her flare for colour and design manifested in the mid-1980s in a business she created, Emily Hand Knits. By the time the venture wound down there were products in tourism shops from Queenstown to Auckland.
Emily would conceive the patterns for the jerseys, scarves and bonnets herself, bring in a mohair blend wool that she dyed in skeins and wound into balls, then send out packages to up to 40 knitters who would realise her creations.
When the business ended she was left with thousands of dollars-worth of wool, which she donated to a group of knitters in Rangiora making booties and hats for African orphans.
Throughout her life, Emily was active in community groups of all kinds, including the Waimakariri Gorge Golf Club and the Waimakariri Bridge Club, where she made numerous life-long friends.
‘‘She was incredibly good with people. She had a magical personality that people just loved. She had an infectious laugh, she had a magnetic smile, and she was always looking on the bright side,’’ Robert said.
Her compassionate nature made her particularly well-suited for a role at the Oxford Community Rooms where, for about 15 years, she volunteered at the front desk and greeted those in need of the help the organisation provided.
On February 22, 2011, Emily was shopping at Christchurch’s Cashel Mall. She had just stepped back inside, after remembering something she needed, when the earthquake struck and she was thrown to the ground.
It took more than an hour to make her way from Ballantynes to the Bridge of Remembrance just a few dozen metres away. Near the bridge, Emily, then aged 70, ran into a woman her own age and the woman’s 94-year-old aunt.
Each year, on the anniversary of the earthquake, the trio met to celebrate their good fortune.
Never publicly recognised in her lifetime, Robert said Emily wove for herself a special place in Oxford and the wider community with the golden thread of her personality.
‘‘She was quite remarkable,’’ he said. Emily Rose Johnston is survived by her husband, Robert, her thee children, Rosalind, Sarah and Nicholas, and her grandchildren, Lucy, Eva, and Harry.