Decades of service as a good Samaritan

‘‘It breaks my heart that people are desperate enough to consider suicide when we are there to answer the phone.’’ Rosemary

Rosemary’s voice has provided comfort to anxious, lonely and depressed callers of the Samaritans helpline for the past five decades.

She is known as Rosemary 23, the call number assigned on her return to the Samaritans in 1973.

She first joined in February 1966, as soon as she left school and was old enough to train as a volunteer, and was originally known as Rosemary 111 – the first in the 11th training group of 1966.

Rosemary, 72, has a spent nearly threequarters of her life talking with people with no one else to turn to for her work with the Samaritans.

Due to Covid-19, Rosemary had spent a lot of time lately talking to lonely older people unable to visit friends or family.

In a normal year, trained volunteers answered about 23,000 calls, but demand had increased 25 per cent during the March lockdown.

‘‘It breaksmy heart that people are desperate enough to consider suicide when we are there to answer the phone,’’ Rosemary said.

The Samaritans were understaffed and relied solely on grants and donations to operate. The aim was to provide a 24-hour service, but sometimes there were simply not enough volunteers, and callers transferred to other helplines.

Rosemary’s reason for continuing to volunteer was simple; it was essential people had someone to talk to.

‘‘Because we are anonymous and operate on first names only, people can unburden themselves. Just talking about it makes it seem manageable,’’ she said.

The Samaritans provided a nonjudgemental, and non-religious service. Unlike other helplines, they don’t call emergency serviceswithout the caller’s consent.

Their annual street appeal returns on September 25 and 26. Rosemary will be on the streetswith a donation bucket in hand, as will former Wellingtonmayor Justin Lester, who had volunteered for the Samaritans for 10 years.

When Lester was young, his father died by suicide, and Lester had been a collector at the annual appeal every year for the past decade.

‘‘Suicide is not a topicmany people talk about so the Samaritans is not an organisation with general public awareness,’’ Lester said.

Chairperson John Meeuwsen said every donation made a difference.

‘‘When we are receiving over 23,000 calls each year, that soon adds up. We need to raise $15,000 from this appeal to maintain our service,’’ Meeuwsen said.