Family History 1.140

Gaze History: NSG Memoir

Mid-fifties

In Berne

After a year’s course at the Secondary Teachers College a few yards up the road from home, Franklin left to teach in Hamilton.  Mary was apprehensive because also leaving to teach in Hamilton was Franklin’s girl-friend, Audrey Butcher.  Her own experiences of losing two boyfriends, one to illness and one to accident, at an early age, made her nervous of the emotional upheavals involved in such relationships.  Noel, too, as we have seen, had had his own failure in love.  But they supported each other and waved their son Goodbye as he left home on the great adventure of life.  Olwyn’s nursing course in those days meant living in at the hospital, so the house was suddenly much emptier now that two children had flown the nest. 

At this stage of his life, Noel’s activities in connection with the Leprosy Mission began to bear fruit. The New Zealand committee hit upon a fundraising method which proved a world-beater.  They found a contractor who undertook to process second-hand clothes for them, to collect the clothes left out by householders, and to pay the proceeds to the Mission. In a few years this method established the Mission as a leading charity, providing as much for the international work as the UK Council raised in some years.  The Leprosy Mission was the pioneer organisation in what has since become a common form of fund-raising. The work was not without its problems: there were good and bad contractors in the second-hand clothes collecting business.

 

Fortunately at this stage Noel had the support of a friend in the new Epsom Church minister, Rev Ewen Simpson, a well-read, thoughtful man, whose sermons interested Noel. Noel and Ewen had worked together on Baptist Union committees for some years.  Ewen was interested in the challenge of a small church like Epsom, and had a family who were just starting University studies and appreciated the closeness of Epsom to Auckland University,  having lived for some years in Hawkes Bay.

In London

 

In 1955, Mary was unwell for a time, and was eventually diagnosed as having shingles, which curtailed her energy and activities for a few months.  Noel proposed a holiday overseas, and in 1956 they left by the Arosa Star for Europe. Noel kept a diary of this trip, until they left the UK, which gives us a detailed picture of their journey. Stuart boarded with Graham and Nola Bond at Papatoetoe and with Aunty Dot at Bellevue Road. During the year he graduated into long trousers, was taught to drive the car by his aunt, and started to notice a young lady called Catherine!

On the return home, with Mary much improved, Noel and Mary moved into a new home in St Leonards Road.  Stuart was at Grammar, and playing rugby for his school.  Noel would often go to watch him play.  On one memorable occasion Stuart scored a runaway try and the family was never allowed to forget it!  

At the same time, they found Franklin’s plans had moved on.  He announced that he and Audrey were planning to get married the following year and had been accepted by the Baptist Missionary Society to work in India.  There was a tussle between the young couple and the missionary society about the marriage plans, because it had always been the custom for the man to try the situation first and then, if his health and commitment stood that test, the fiancée could follow and marriage would take place in India.  But Franklin and Audrey wanted to change that and marry towards the end of 1957 before leaving together.

This put Noel in a difficult situation: all the members of the mission council were his friends, and he worked with some of them closely on Union Executive and College Board.  He did mildly explain to Franklin that it was not easy being in the middle, but eventually the mission authorities conceded the point graciously, and the old rule was changed for ever, to considerable applause from older missionaries who had wanted to buck the system themselves!