When a present from yesteryear finds its way home

BaptistCare Niola Centre’s longstanding and beloved Matron, Marjery Field, was surprised and delighted with a special gift recently.

Marjery’s family visited her to present and reunite her with her original nurses cape.

The framed cape will be displayed at Niola for the enjoyment of residents and staff alike. It also includes a photo of Marjery wearing the cape in her nursing days. 

Marjery became a resident at Niola Centre in 2017, and is all too familiar with the history of the site. 

She was the first Matron of Niola when it was purchased by BaptistCare in 1957.

Marjery moved to Parkes from BaptistCare’s Yallambi Centre in Sydney back in the 1950s.

She was instrumental in getting the Niola Centre up and running, making it what it is today.

Last year during Niola’s 60th anniversary celebrations, Marjery told the Parkes Champion Post what it was like to ‘run the show’ in 1957.

“I was the original matron of the whole caboose,” Marjery said.

“I was sent up here to start Niola. What I had to do was teach all the locals, who were helping to do the place up, how to run a nursing home.

Marjery says she has many people to thank for helping make Niola the wonderful facility and generous home that it is today. 

And she hasn’t forgotten their names. 

“There were so many local families who supported this place and made it work.

“The Fields the MacGregors are two of the families I remember.

“My husband and Mrs Harrison did all the paysheets for years. 

Marjery has many fond memories of the original Niola, which she says was a labour of love for her and her fellow colleagues.

“It was a beautiful old bungalow home with a verandah all the way around and a corridor down the middle that had been turned into a maternity hospital. 

“We spent weeks chipping the enamel off the beds so we could paint them. 

She said the hard work and dedication of local volunteers made the invaluable renovations possible.

“The locals worked in shifts. It had to have a kitchen and a dining room added, it was all sorts of trouble.” 

BaptistCare purchased Niola, formerly a bush hospital, as a 12-bed home in 1957.

Following a 16-month redevelopment which finished in 2017, it is now Parkes’ most state-of-the-art aged care centre.

Marjery now enjoys her twilight years in a centre full of lovely memories that she helped create.

And if she ever needs reminding of her contribution, she need only look at her framed nurse cape, proudly hanging on the wall.

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