Making a Dame

I was pleased to listen to Dame Margaret Bazley at the Memorial Hall on Sunday at the commemoration for Armistice Day, where she was the guest speaker.

She spoke of living in Waihi with her parents at their home in Regent Street, and acknowledged the strength of the women who single-handedly raised their families, having lost their husbands in the war, or in the case of their neighbour, also supporting a husband who was unable to work due to warrelated injuries.

Dame Margaret attended Waihi College as Margaret Hope, later training as a nurse, became Chief Nursing Officer on the Waikato Hospital Board, followed by a career in the public service, and was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal in 1993, and appointed Dame Companion of the NZ Order of Merit in 1999. Not bad for a girl from Waihi.

I commented to her later that I had enjoyed listening to her RNZ interview, which was over a year ago, where she recounted her experience of, while still at College, and after talking to a neighbour, applying to do special nursing training.

When she was accepted, at age 18, and on her own she caught the bus all the way to Wellington, to arrive at the hospital to begin her training.

There was no expectation in those days that a parent would take you there, and she recalled when we spoke, that the four pounds she had saved through her school years in the school Post Office Savings Scheme was used to pay for the bus fare, and expenses. Yes, that was the makings of a Dame. CLARE BOYD

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