Life full of music and devotion
stone steps on which they stood at their erstwhile school in Tyne St, its great, curved, three-storeyed brick facade once an architectural highlight in the south.
Isobel treasured that cushion, recognising the skill with which Erin had captured that slice of social history – the steps on which they stood, the school that was theirs – all gone now as have some of the girls.
When Isobel Walsh turned 80 she was presented with a signal papal honour, the Benemerenti Medal, a recognition of devotion to her faith expressed through music, singing and playing the organ in her parish church St Therese of Lisieux in Perth St, Windsor, and often as well on a Sunday filling a gap at St Patrick’s in Georgetown.
She was knowledgeable on liturgical music, her early discipline a Latin Mass, but enjoyed music in an ecumenical setting too in interdenominational church choirs where her strong, beautiful voice was sought.
The Walshespassed their musical gifts on to their children, Margaret, Helen and Christopher.
Helen, who works in medical recruitment in London, remembers ‘‘waking to Mum practising for the LTCL piano exam, a higher qualification she felt she needed when teaching’’.
‘‘It was a wonderful way to start the day,’’ she said.
‘‘I can still sing along to Bach’s Italian concerto which we would wake up to nearly every morning.
‘‘If it wasn’t Dad playing the bassoon – a Vivaldi or Weber concerto – it would be Mum playing the piano.
‘‘We were lucky to grow up in a wonderfully musical household.’’
Isobel Walsh was a member of the Institute of Registered Music Teachers, a founder, committee member and life member of the A Capella choir, on the committee of the Southland Competitions Society and a former counsellor with Invercargill Lifeline.
Maintaining a keen interest in politics and current affairs throughout her life, she was an intelligent and thoughtful conversationalist.
Pre-deceased by her husband Brian and by her only sibling, Mary Donovan of Dunedin, Isobel leaves her daughters Margaret, Invercargill, and Helen, London, and her son Chris, a journals editor in Auckland, as well as grandchildren Hayley, 14, and Zak, 11, with Margaret and her husband Phil Lockett in Melbourne St.