THE PASSING OF NURSE MAUDE.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 25, Issue 9, 1 September 1935, Page 5

THE PASSING OF NURSE MAUDE.

So much has been, printed concerning the passing of Nurse Maude m the daily press that there remains little report for us to add. We cannot but be thankful that she who had spent her whole working life relieving the sickness and distress of others was 1 spared the misery of a long illness or years of physical inability to carry on her beloved work. If ever New Zealand had a true Saint of God it was Nurse Maude. As Mr. Howard happily described her, she was literally the Lady of the Lamp to the, poor of Christchurch, a true follower of Florence Nightingale, but even more truly a follower of the Great Healer, Consoler and Saviour. She walked m His footsteps' every day and hour and minute of those 40 years of active service, and it was a happy thought that arrayed her for her lying-in-state m the familiar bonnet and pale blue dress that were her passport to the homes of the poor and distressed. For the younger generation Nurse Maude had become so much a part of the social landscape, so to speak, that it was not till she had so suddenly departed from us that the immense value of her work, the glory of her personality, was realised. To many the history of her great Christian achievement was as news when it was published. To think that 40 years ago this cultured, delicately nurtured, clever woman abandoned a position of trust, importance, emolument and interests as matron of the Christchurch Public Hospital to give her whole heart and all her time of day and night to ministering to the sick poor of the city, without other thought than the relief of their needs as Christ would have succoured

them had He walked our streets^ is to recall one of the most encouraging examples of what faith m Christ can accomplish m man or woman. It mattered not to her what faith or unfaith her patients or clients had, her ministrations fell on the just; and the unjust; but we are proud to recall that she was a Churchwoman who found the spiritual strength to go on and on and on m the "Church of England" and at our Catholic altars. In those early days when she tramped on foot the purlieus of Christchurch it was to the Deaconess House I—the1 — the Community of the Sacred Name of to-day —that she returned each day, footsore and weary of body, as to a home both physical and spiritual; and that loving fellowship with the Sisters she maintained throughout her working life. We are glad, to feel that it was another sterling Churchwoman, Lady Rhodes, who befriended her work and helped so greatly to set it firmly on its feet and to extend its scope. But hitherto it has been the personality and the work of, Nurse Maude which has been the strong foundation on which the nursing service has been built. An anonymous contributor has put into verse the thoughts that should move us as we contemplate the Madras street building, now empty of her bodily presence, but filled with her loving spirit: "Hush! Everyone's friend is ingLet her rest. And they who know her best Will know what she would wish. No stately monument of stone, But her work carried on; Her sick and sad and lonely visited and helped, Her old folks cheered and comforted, Her hungry fed, and not with bread alone, But with the love and courage that she brought. Then she, on waking, will look round And, smiling, see we loved her, And the Lord Christ for Whom m these she wrought." The Church she loved loved to honour her with the beauty of solemn music and stately prayer. They carried the casket containing her mortal remains into the Cathedral and left it

open for the hundreds who canie to see her peacefully sleeping. The Sisters of the C.S.N. and friends kept sleepless watch throughout the night by the body,., the columned fane, lit only by the flickering candles around the bier. They bore her body through streets crowded with people waiting to see her pass and to marvel at the. mass of wreaths and the length of the procession. The people clustered round her chosen resting place m the beloved churchyard of Riccarton St. Peter. The people's leaders have sung her praises m a merited Te Deum, for once unneeding to exaggerate the worth of the service she rendered. It remains now. to see that the work for which" she gave her life, the work which was her career m Christ, does not languish for want of her bodily presence.