In Memoriam

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XVII, Issue 4, 1 October 1924, Page 175

In Memoriam

The sudden death of Frances Keith Payne came as a great shock. One somehow imagined she had many more years of life ahead, to give her valuable counsel and help to all who sought her guidance m matters of weighty responsibility or of lesser import. She gave to all. Her purpose and aim m life was so straight and true that it wrung wholehearted admiration even from those who found her almost military discipline hard and uncompromising. Her life was an example of loyal devotion to duty, responsibilities borne with virile courage, and discipline enforced by a strong vital personality. She stood for the noblest womanly ideals of the worth of true self-devotedness both m the particular and the general duties of a nurse's career. This will ever remain as a lasting monument to her memory m the hearts of those whom she trained. The ideal she set before her

nurses m her teaching and her administration of a big hospital stands m great contrast to the feverish money-grubbing bustle of these days. Duty was to her an urgent call to be answered instantly without a thought of self. When her last call from the Master came she answered swiftly. AVhen the first shock was over, one felt how kind, how merciful it was! She was spared the long weary months (or years) of an incurable infirmity, and fell as her courageous spirit deserved and as one would have wished for her if one had thought of death at all. The fruit of her life remains, and her example acts as a living force m the lives of many of her nurses, as a leaven that will leaven the mass it touches, and never lose its activity. May we realise with her that — Our times are m His Hand : Who said a whole I planned? Trust God, see all, nor be afraid!