Long Service Given To Grey Hospital

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32381, 21 August 1970, Page 2

Long Service Given To Grey Hospital

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FRANK SNOW)

GREYMOUTH. After more than 25 years nursing on the staff of the Grey Hospital, Greymouth, Miss Gwendoline Werner has retired for reasons of health.

For the last 15 years she has been sister-in-charge of the Tasman Home for the Aged. She was also a sister in the women’s medical ward and later in the children’s ward at the hospital. In appreciation of her valuable service, the West Coast Hospital Board recently made her a gratuity grant, a gesture that is not the regular practice of the board. Miss Werner, who says her health is “rapidly recuperating,” hopes to settle at Hokitika because she likes the climate there and the scenic surroundings. Born in the gold-dredging settlement named Oilman Town, near Kumara, Miss Werner is the daughter of well-known West Coast residents, the late Mr and Mrs Henry Werner. Her father worked on the Kumara gold

claims when a young man, but the family lived later in Barrytown, Runanga, Rewanui, and Dunollie while Mr Werner worked as a ganger on the Dunollie-Rewanui railway line. Miss Werner, who is known to her hospital colleagues as “Trudy,” has made no definite plans as yet for her retirement Many Interests

“There are so many interests I feel I’d like to take up that thinking about them is full pf excitement” she said. “But one thing I don’t want is a job.” Her interests include cooking and cake decorating. She has attended night-school classes in woodwork, has learnt how to make soft toys

and plaster of Paris ornaments, and makes all her own clothes.

“Since childhood I’ve been fond of drawing and sketching,” she said. “There was a time when I set my mind on becoming a cartoonist “I think creative art may govern my retirement But I’m not a person to be obsessed by one thing. Hl still do a lot of dabbling,” Miss Werner said.