After gaining my General Nursing Certificate at Prince Henry Hospital in Sydney, followed by training in Midwifery, a colleague and I travelled to New Zealand for a working holiday.  My intention was to eventually return to the Mission Station on Tiwi Island, some 80 Miles from Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia, where I had previously worked for one year.  However, due to running out of travelling money while in New Zealand, I obtained a nursing position at Calvary Hospital in Wellington, and there my life took an unexpected turn.

At the Calvary Hospital I admired the Sisters I met, and was influenced by reading the literature from Mary Potter, her apostolic works of caring for the sick and dying, and her spirituality of a mother’s heart.

So, in August 1968 I began my vocation as a Sister of the Little Company of Mary, with formation over and accepted to make Permanent Vows.  I found myself heavily involved setting up, with the help of many other like-minded people, the Mary Potter Hospice with palliative care services.  In 1979, the Mary Potter Hospice together with Te Omanga Hospice were the first to provide this new service to the people of Wellington, New Zealand.  Both Hospices have excelled over the years.

Today, sitting back reflecting on those 56 years, they seem like a chunk of time, lived one day at a time.  Sometimes in the clouds and sometimes in conflict of sorts.  For me, this was not necessarily planned at any stage, although I knew I wanted to be a nurse forever.  I just applied myself to the task ahead, and that is how I came to be attracted to nursing the sick and the dying.

Over the years New Zealand has been a haven with its joys and challenges.  It has given me lots of skills and gifts, especially the passion in establishing the Mary Potter Hospice and Palliative Care Service, working together with the many skilled professionals, volunteers, patients and supportive individuals.  This was more than just about work and a lifestyle (although that is included), New Zealand with its smallness, its beauty and especially its Māori and Pacific cultures grew me and matured me in a set of life values that has enhanced my journey as a Little Company of Mary Sister.

However, it is time to return home to Sydney, back to my roots that I left 56 years ago.  Where my brother still lives in the family home.  Today my journey continues, one day at a time, as a resident at Calvary Retirement Village, Ryde, NSW.

How fortunate am I?

Sister Margaret Lancaster LCM