MEMORIAL SERVICE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 201, 26 July 1937, Page 8

MEMORIAL SERVICE

LATE MISS J. N. McGHIE. A LIFE OF EXAMPLE. To honour the memory of Miss J. N. McGhie, matron of the Palmerston North Hospital, whose death occurred yesterday, a memorial service was conducted by Rev. Jf. Hubbard, M.A., B. at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, this morning. The large gathering included Mr J. A. Nash, chairman of the Palmerston North Hospital Board, and Mrs Nash, the Mayor (Mr A. E. Mnnsford), who is a member of the board, and Mrs Mansford, Mrs M. Aitchison, Messrs J. Hodgens, M.P., F. J. Ryder, J. Boyce, and V. E. Smith, members of the board; Mr L. Stein, chairman of the Dannevirke Hospital Board, and Miss Brown, matron of the Dannevirke Hospital; Miss Aitken, matron of the Otnki Sanatorium, and Mrs Evans, matron ol the Otaki Hospital ; Miss M. McLagan, a former matron of the Palmerston North Hospital; Miss D. Wright, matron of the Awapuni Home; Mrs R. L. C. Aitchison, Mrs H. Palmer, and Mr J. K. Paton, representing the Manawatu branch of the Red Cross Society; the pall-bearers, Messrs A. J. Phillipps (managing-secretary of the Hospital Board) ; J. H. North (medical superintendent), L. F. Cooper, W. Galbraith, V. J. Hean, and Dr. Skinner. About 70 nurses were present in full uniform, led by the deputy-matron, Miss V. M. Bright, and the tutor sister, Miss L. Banks, and the sisters, and they made an impressive sight. A number of nurses who received their training under Miss McGhie attended, and the medical profession was well represented. Ambulance drivers and porters at the hospital formed a guard of honour at the entrance of the church. Mr A. J. Graham presided at the organ. The death of Miss McGhie was a. great loss to the nursing profession of the Dominion and in particular to the Palmerston North Hospital, said Mr Hubbard. He outlined Miss McGhie’s career, and said that as matron of the Palmerston North Hospital for the past ten years she had presided over the institution with distinction and entire satisfaction to this large community. Her foremost concern had always been her patients, and there were many who had testified to him of her loving care. The staff had been her next concern, and it was due to Miss McGhie that there was such a high standard of physical fitness among the nurses. Undoubtedly the recent epidemic of infantile paralysis had taken toll on her, as she had been deeply touched at the suffering of the children so affected. “It is not so much of the outward facts of Miss McGhie’s life that I would speak, but of its message to lls —her example of entire devotion to duty, of absolute sincerity, womanly sympathy, and a character that reached upward to higher ideals,” proceeded Mr Hubbard. “Her feet will pass no more through the wards on errands of mrecy 'and healing, but we shall not forget her. We shall cherish her memory in our heart, and seek to share with those who come alter us the noble example that she has left behind. We wish that in years to be the story should be told of a woman who was brave and stiong, kind and true as steel, who had a heart with sympathy for others’ sorrows, and hands swift and sure in dealing loving service; who gave her life as truly for duty’s sake as any. soldier on the gallant, glorious field. Her life was an inspiration ever to do the single right, and scorn the miserable aim that ends with self. “We must not dwell in sadness, concluded Mr Hubbard. “She would bid us look forward, not back; to ‘Follow, follow, through His grace Who loved and suffered long ago.