You will all know my mother for her passion for teaching children and adults to read and write from which she was never able to retire. I know that side too; in fact, the entire family do, as she loved talking about it and the book she wrote and the trust she established. For years, it was all we seemed to hear about! As a family, we are very proud of her achievements but to us she was our mum.

The last few months my mum and I used to talk about her life and it was very interesting. She was exceptionally proud of being a Gamlen and if you notice on the back of the early Reading and Spelling Made Simple Books, you will notice that the “Gamlen Press” published it. She was too impatient to wait for a publishing firm to publish it so she did it all herself. The Gamlen family were a very well established family in the Cornwall area having had a large estate there for nearly 600 years. My mother and her sister were always incensed that they would miss out on the estate, as they were only females.

She was also very proud of her mother’s side of the family who descend from James Preece. He was one of the original missionaries in NZ and he was the third white man to be married in NZ. His mission area was from Puriri to Coromandel and then all over the Ureweras where he would walk over them a few times a year. If you go to Coromandel, you will notice Preece’s point, which he owned. His son Alfred married a Maori woman Marae Kautawhiti and purchased a few hectares in Little Bay and Coromandel in 1872. We are privileged to find that it has been sitting there waiting for us since then and have created a trust to care for it for the generations to come.

My mum was the youngest child of four, and was brought up by Nan her nanny. In those days nannies lived in and mum thought of her as her other mother. When my mum was 4 ½ yrs old, her dad died suddenly and a month later, her Nan left to get married. It was an impact on her that never left that she was still upset when we talked about it this year.

She met my dad at Auckland University where she was doing her Bachelor of Arts degree. She never finished her Art degree, as her mother wanted her up in Whangerei. I remember her telling me that they went on their honeymoon on bikes. After they married they built their first house in Papatoetoe and if you compare what people have when they get married now; they did not even have a fridge. This house was beside paddocks as I remember and now it is in the middle of the city.

In 1957, they moved to Morrinsville and lived at the Fertiliser Works, until Dad retired, where they established a lovely family home. We all remember going on camping trips around NZ. We would choose a different area each year and all have our own jobs to do. Mum used to pack all the boxes and put everything in the right place and we would help dad pack the trailer and the tent. We got very good at it.

Don and I remember having to peel boxes and boxes of peaches and pears every year and then bottle them. They did look nice when they were finished and we did enjoy doing it.

The other thing I remember is that every Friday night we went to the pictures. This was before TV. Mum used to take her knitting and knit the whole way through the picture.

Once we were in our teens mum worked in the High school library. I used to love helping her mend books and put them away. When she was 37 yrs old, she went to training college where they had a condensed 1 year course for adults who had previously gone to University.

Once she got into teaching, her passion for the children she taught just blossomed. She remembered many of the children she taught, as I am sure those who sit here will know. I always remember listening to her when she was teaching children as she seemed to be so patient with them and always instil the sense to them that just because you needed help with reading or spelling that you were not dumb and that reading was a joy.

However even after she retired from full time teaching she went on to complete her Degree in Education, which was the one regret that she had not been able to achieve earlier. She proudly graduated on her 65th birthday.

She loved all her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren equally. On Sunday all the grandchildren and great grandchildren were able to visit her, except for Colin and Meagan who are in the USA. They rang her and she told them that she loved them and that she had been very sick but was getting better. Maia, my 5yr old granddaughter said to her dad that night that nana was going to die and that poppa would be very sad, but he would have his family to help him.