22 June 2022
Once a nurse, always a nurse. Or so it is for Harbour Hospice volunteer Sue Falconer, who has been recognised at the charity’s Long Service Awards for five years’ service as a community visitor and kitchen helper.
Sue has an impressive 30-year nursing career behind her that saw her caring for children and adults with cancer as well as working in palliative care. She was a patient advocate for the Multiple Sclerosis Society in the Waikato and worked as an assessor for ACC - a role which saw her educating health professionals and caregivers about caring for patients with serious injuries.
She retired when she moved from Te Awamutu to Auckland to be with her second husband, David Meldrum, six years ago but soon found she missed the sense of purpose that caring for others gave her. Sue took up volunteering for Hospice with David, who has been a patient driver for 15 years.
The mother of five, stepmother to David’s two children, and grandmother of 13 says she takes real pleasure from nurturing others. “It’s doing those little things that make a difference for people.”
Starting out in the kitchen, she helped Hospice’ cooks prepare meals for patients - mashing eggs, doing “lots and lots of dishes”, setting lunch trays and making pots of tea. Then when her role was temporarily put on hold due to the redevelopment of Hospice’ North Shore facility, she began volunteering as a community visitor.
“My first person was a caregiver with a very ill husband who wanted to learn how to knit,” Sue says. “It wasn’t long before we struck a deal. I taught her to knit and she showed me how to make dumplings.”
There have been many others since, each memorable in their own way. But the patient who perhaps left the biggest imprint on Sue was someone who died very recently. “He was a scholar of philosophy and he was a very interesting man. I used to read to him, and I learned so much from him.
“The sad thing is you didn’t know them before they became ill; you only meet them as an unwell person. But their character is there, and you still see their light.”
This gentleman died on the one day a week that his devoted wife worked. He was with a kind neighbour and when Sue arrived just a few minutes later she was able to fall back on her nursing experience to make sure the correct procedures were followed in the hours immediately afterward.
“That was very sad,” she says. “But I’m glad I was there.”
