Gisborne District Council have referred people on to Mrs McCulloch, who is known to some as “Mrs Headstone”.
The second book is called Further For Those Who Lie Beneath, which tells the stories of 90 individuals and families.
In some cases stories overlap, in others, families or individuals share the same surnames but are not related.
Two years ago, her first book, titled For Those Who Lie Beneath, told the stories of 96 individuals.
“The stories cover things like how they came to Gisborne, when and what they did when they got here,” says Mrs McCulloch.
“I asked families for one or two pages (on each person) and if possible, a photograph or two.”
Some of the families treat her as a member of their family.
Some stories are quite moving, some are sad — “sad enough to make you cry”.
Mrs McCulloch says one family story included “a quite big indiscretion”, but that was shared in confidence, not in publication.
She envisages a third book coming out in about another two years.
“There are approximately 4500 people buried there, so there are plenty of stories to tell.”
She is not related to anyone resting at Makaraka, so why does she do it?
“We feel we have honoured the people who came to Gisborne to live here and eventually died here.
“They built the structure of the city we have now.”
She loves the cemetery.
“I wish I could be buried there.”
Mrs McCulloch says the first book has become a popular source at HB Williams Memorial Library, which has two copies.
“One never goes out of the library.
“The other book has a waiting list.”
Mrs McCulloch was an original member of the Friends of Makaraka Cemetery Trust which was founded in 2016.
In fact, the trust has not changed in membership since its 2016 foundation, with the other trustees being Gavin Bull, Margaret Paterson, Trieve Rolls, David Andrew and Warwick Ingoe.
The trust was formed to look after the cemetery with duties outside of Gisborne District Council's budget for the cemetery, which officially closed in 1916 — such as cleaning headstones, removing fallen tree branches and running tours.
Trustees have since gone on to restore and reinstate 88 headstones removed from their grave sites between 1971 and 1973, and buried in 1982 (to prevent damage and vandalism).
Hundreds of other headstones, considered to be in poor condition, were made into rubble and used to fill in the nearby Houhoupiko Stream.
Only two headstones remain unclaimed and are likely to remain so.
One is for Jacobus Ivor Hoiby, who came from Bergen, today a city of 271,000 residents in Norway.
“No matter how we searched, we have not been able to find a contact,” says Mrs McCulloch.
The other headstone is also for a Scandinavian, Charles Poulsen.
Mrs McCulloch says research revealed a number of different spellings, such as Paulson, Paulsen, Polsen, Poulsen, Poulson and Polson.
“There are so many possibilities, it is mind-boggling.”
Some headstones have been erected where none previously existed.
Mrs McCulloch first became prominent in helicopter circles with her late husband and pilot Russ, when they moved to Gisborne from Rotorua in 1968. She looked after their four children, kept the company books and answered the phone and radio-telephone.
“I knew farmers by their voice only. I never knew them by face because I never met them.”
But her work skills went much further and included pumping jellified petrol into tanks for burn-offs, mixing sprays and other tasks for the helicopter.
Russ was killed working as a helicopter pilot on the Kawerau-to-Gisborne gas pipeline in 1984. There had been previous helicopter crashes in 1968, 1969 and 1975.
“Every time he crashed a helicopter I had just had a baby, or was going to. I said ‘we're not having any more kids'.”
Mrs McCulloch and several of her children accessed Wings of Light, an aviation crash survivors support group, and found it therapeutic.
Another passion is gardening.
She went on to become a qualified judge and teacher in floral art.
She was also involved with Gisborne's sister cities and visited Palm Desert, Nonoichi-Machi and Gisborne in Victoria, Australia.
Mrs McCulloch started Gisborne Care and Craft Centre in 1988 after being impressed by the influence the organisation had on her mother.
Care and Craft has a group of guests who are all deaf and communicate through New Zealand sign language.
A sign language coffee morning group starts on July 26 and will be held fortnightly at St Andrew's Church Hall.
Mrs McCulloch does not envisage a time when she will retire from working in the community.
“I'll always be doing something. It's just something in me, I have to do things.
“I'm like a terrier with a bone.I don't let go.”
