Noreen Louise Mulligan (Nicoll)
Good afternoon. Welcome to this service of thanksgiving for the life of Noreen Louise Nicoll.
I want to offer my sympathy to Louise’s family today, her husband Peter and son Greg. Also to her mother Iris Mulligan and her brother Ron and his wife Jenny, sister Barbara and her husband David, and brother Bryan and his wife Desiree. Nieces Sarah Rose, Charlotte and Jayne and nephew Andrew are here today and her only other niece Kate is in England. On behalf of everyone gathered here, we offer you our love. We are very sorry for your loss of Louise.
My name is Lyn Wilson and I have been a friend of Peter, Louise, and Greg for 15 years now. It is my privilege to lead us through this service today. The family has asked me to thank you for coming and sharing and honouring and remembering Louise. Refreshments will be provided in the room next door, at the close of the service. We hope you will be able to stay and talk with the family.
Louise was born on 6th July 1942 in Dunedin.
She was the first of four children born to Iris and Frank Mulligan.
At two she moved to Te Kuiti, followed by Invercargill and then Dunedin again. She attended Maori Hill primary school and later Taita and Khandallah.
Ron’s earliest memory of Louise is in the snow in Invercargill, when she was 4. It seems she fell and chipped a tooth, blaming Ron for pushing here. Ron of course denied this, but I thought yesterday he was almost prepared to confess what really happened.
In 1950 the family moved to Lower Hutt, and then soon after to Khandallah, in Wellington City. Louise was a foundation pupil at Onslow College, 49 years ago. Because the school was new and the grounds not sealed Louise regularly came home with mud to her shins, something OSH would not allow to happen today. Bryan remembers her modelling the new uniform with it’s horrible round-toed shoes.
Ron and Louise were part of a children’s theatre group. Ron recalls that she spoiled his debut because she got chicken pox and he also had to be quarantined.
Louise’s father managed picture theatres, so Louise had holiday jobs as an usherette. At the Lower Hutt theatre apparently she saw the Debbie Reynolds movie ‘Tammy’ 23 times!
Her first real job was at the Public Library in Wellington. Then she worked at the DSIR library in Lower Hutt. She met and fell in love with Peter. They met on a bus. He was the bus driver. The story goes that he had an arrangement with the other drivers to not pick her up. They would drive by with near empty buses and then Peter would come by with his full one and stop to pick up Louise.
Barbara remembers Peter and Louise getting engaged. Peter took the family out to a restaurant. Barbara had never been to a flash restaurant before and she remembers the occasion because she got to wear stockings for the very first time.
Peter and Louise were married in 1962. Their first home was in Wainuiomata, and it was there that Greg was born in 1965. They were there around 5 years and they fostered a lot of children during those years.
Between 1957 and 1961 Louise studied for and achieved her ATCL in speech and drama through Trinity College. While in Wainui she and a friend ran variety concerts for the children at the local community hall using this talent. She also acted with the local repertory society.
The family moved to the Nelson area and they ran a dairy called the ‘Punch and Judy’ in Motueka.
Peter and Louise and Greg moved to Dunedin in 1972, where Louise got a job at Social Welfare as a receptionist. She began her social work training and even before she had completed it, she was given a social work position in the department. She subsequently finished her training and worked there for some years. She was particularly involved with adoption work. From 1981-1995 Louise worked for healthcare Otago, first as a social worker at the rehabilitation unit at Waikari Hospital, then as the Senior Social Worker managing care of the elderly.
From 1991-95 she was project coordinator of a rehabilitative community day centre in south Dunedin for people with chronic disabilities.
Louise was an innovator. She was a creative thinker, in her work, and in her home. She loved her garden and especially developing the land at her and Peter’s home up the top of North East Valley. She enjoyed sewing and knitting. She knitted soft toys and enjoyed giving them away to children.
With peter she proposed a Needs Assessment and Service coordination business. They successfully tendered to the Health Funding Authority and for five years provided services to people with mental health, drug and/or alcohol disabilities. This is the time during which I got to know Louise best as she and Peter were my bosses. She was a great boss. I felt comfortable around here, but I knew I had a job to do well. She was an excellent communicator and a wonderful example as a social worker. She worked tirelessly for her clients, she was a creative advocate for them and righteously indignant about the plight of many of them because of social and financial constraints. She simply loved to help people.
Louise did not suffer fools lightly and she was passionate about injustices that impacted on her clients’ wellbeing. I learned so much from her and I credit a great deal of my current ability to her knowledge and support.
More recently Louise worked for PACT and for a short time at St Clair Park residential centre, still supporting people with mental health issues and disabilities.
Louise was a member of the local Lotteries commission and enjoyed that role, being able to give funding to organisations that she felt were doing a worthwhile job. She has been President of the local Parkinsons Society and Vice President of the National body, her interest no doubt spurred on bythe fact that her own father had suffered with this disease and had been President of the National society.
Unfortunately Louise became ill about 6 months ago. Believing this was a virus, she and Peter boxed on in their usual way, expecting things would get better soon. However, that did not happen, and it was not until early October that the doctors finally diagnosed her with myasthenia gravis, and removed a tumour from her thymus gland.
It was late September before I knew Louise was ill and I promptly phoned her in hospital. She was so keen to tell me that the hospital chaplain had visited her, because we’d had many conversations around faith issues. The chaplain had asked Louise “What has this done to your faith?”
Louise liked this question, it had challenged her. Her reply was “It has strengthened it.” Louise was not overt about her faith, but she was well informed about the Christian life, by Peter, Greg, her friend Alva, myself and others. I asked her if I could pray for her and she replied “O yes, please”. We ended the call, both of us in tears, it was a very special moment.
Louise was at peace when I came down to visit her at Labour weekend. I was not looking forward to seeing my friend ill. I had decided she would hate being incapacitated and be fighting hard, but instead I found her very positive. She was hopeful of the future, when she would walk again and looking forward to buying a campervan and touring with Peter next year. Sadly that was not to be. After five months in hospital, on Sunday morning Louise had a stroke and on Monday at 3am she slipped out of this life.
Louise loved her son, Greg, dearly. She was very proud of him. When he wasn’t living at home she always wanted to know where he was and what he was up to. Apparently her eyes lit up every time she looked at him on Sunday, just hours before she died. A couple of times they worked together and I know she enjoyed that immensely.
Her other great love was Peter, her husband of 43 years. I was often impressed with the way she spoke of him, with such great respect. Peter summed up their life together as “delightful”. He said their marriage was wonderful, and added “I know how to pick the best.” Being able to share with a heart as big as the one Louise had, was a real joy to Peter. She was always available and loved people. Peter is very proud of that.