Obituary: 'Amazing Grace' dies at 98

Grace Heberley told everybody she was going to reach her 100th birthday and said: "I am going to receive that telegram from the Queen."
Sadly, just one week short of 99, Mrs Heberley, who was living at Bernadette House, Mount Maunganui, passed away.
One of five children, Grace Harris was born at Weraroa, near Levin, on July 22, 1912.
Due to her father's work the family moved around and, when she was aged 3 and her sister Anita just 6 weeks, their mother died.
When their father remarried, Grace, Anita and brother Ernie were sent to live in the Home of Compassion, Wellington.
At the age of 7, Grace was sent to St Joseph's in Upper Hutt, and at 15 worked as a house maid for Sir Robert Stout, KCMG, the 13th Premier and later Chief Justice of New Zealand.
At the time she wrote in her diary: "Wasn't bad, seven beds, plenty of work, no time to make friends, jack-of-all-trades and I worked very hard."
She later enjoyed nursing at Wellington Hospital but did not finish training as her great-grandfather Harris became ill. Taking Anita and Ernie, she moved to Ngatea to look after him.
In 1934, Ernie drowned in the Piako River. A very upset Grace was walking up and down the river bank looking for her brother when a young man, Allan Heberley, known as Fluff, asked what was wrong. He stayed with her until Ernie's body was found a week later.
The ensuing friendship saw the couple marry in June 1935 and they had six children.
They lost everything in a fire at their Matatoki/Bonds Rd house, so lived for a while in a little corrugated iron, two-bedroom house beside the creek at Matatoki, later moving to Ngatea for Mr Heberley's work.
Without using patterns, Mrs Heberley had an amazing ability to cut and sew clothes, from simple dresses to ornate costumes, and knit complicated garments.
In hard times when her husband was in the army, she knitted well after midnight fulfilling orders to help feed and clothe her children.
Mrs Heberley held a deep and sincere faith and would not miss going to church, getting the bike out and popping one child on the front and another on the back carrier.
Once delivered, she would go back for the others.
She formed a children's club where she taught ballroom dancing, and joined many organisations, becoming president and secretary, and being made life member of the Catholic Women's League and the Country Women's Institute.
Mrs Heberley was instrumental in raising funds to build the Ngatea baths and had the honour of opening them.
Her sense of humour shone through as, "dressed appropriately" in a longish woollen swimsuit she had made especially for the occasion, she dangled an immersion heater in the water and announced to all: "The water needs to be heated before I will get in."
Often on the stage, Mrs Heberley had a dual act with good friend Belle Courtney. The pair could have an audience crying with laughter.
Mrs Heberley was proud of all her children, writing: "I feel each one has made their mark in life. I am very proud of them and hope that they in turn look back with love and gratitude for all the goodness that God has showered on us all."
On retirement, the Heberleys moved to a pensioner unit in Ngatea and, after her husband passed away in 1988, Mrs Heberley, whose health was failing, moved to Bernadette House to be close to family.
There she made her presence felt, becoming a self-elected advocate for the residents, once petitioning for better meals, and continuing to sing and entertain.
"I have had a very full and rewarding life and, if I've made only one person laugh, I feel I've done some good," Mrs Heberley wrote in her diary.
Grace Heberley is remembered as "Amazing Grace, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother."