Illness and grief are like the fangs of a beast – and thus are some terrible hardships that we go through. We have lost Marj – our hearts are torn open. Our pioneer nurse of the 1940s, Marj, really loved life and her biography and talking to people about her nursing adventures.
What sadly turned out to be her last talk was to a full courtyard at Possums Books & Coffee, at Cooroy, in the Noosa hinterland, on 11 July 2009. Afterward, one of the audience people sent her a CD of school songs from the 1950s Methodist Ladies College, Burwood, school choir. Marj enjoyed putting on her PC headphones to listen to the choir. She was a great people person - and it took insight to really unerstand the layers of her love for others.
She also loved the interaction with her audiences and their feedback. Marj was really tickled to see the local newspaper, the Cooroy Rag, head the column about her talk as “Marj tells it like it was!”
Yes, she could do that well. A gifted public speaker and a sage and wise, gentle and noble woman.
Sadly, Marj died on 30 September 2009 in Buderim Private Hospital – and we have lost a living treasure. It’s hard to accept she is gone and she won’t come wheeling by in her wheelchair, smiling, letting her beautiful blue eyes sparkle as you wait for whatever message she planned to tell you next. She was the pulse in the veins of all who loved her.
Marj was the last of the two 1945 pioneering nurses of the MNS. She now graces our new-look header.
