Christine (Trish) Stephenson

Trish Stephenson. Photo / Supplied

We remember the people who lost their lives in the Christchurch earthquake. Learn more and share your memories and thoughts.

Christine Patricia Stephenson (Trish), 61, was a casual practice nurse who worked at The Clinic in the devastated CTV building.

Nine of her colleagues at The Clinic also died in the earthquake.

Her family says Trish was a keen tramper and traveller who grew up on a farm in Gisborne, which her young brother William still farms. Their sister Juliet died in her forties from breast cancer.

Trish trained at Christchurch Hospital and then travelled extensively in the UK, Africa and Europe, and later in South America, Australia, Nepal and the Pacific.

Becoming an air hostess after her nursing training assisted the travel bug. She also met her husband Rob in flight, when she sat next to him as a passenger.

They had two boys - George, a doctor in Auckland, and Tom, a geophysicist who works in England.

When her marriage broke up, Trish returned to Christchurch, tried her hand at real estate and gained an arts degree in social sciences. She then returned to practice nursing on her preferred basis as a casual where she could pick and choose where she worked, and was a volunteer for St John's Ambulance.

Social, adventurous and fun, Trish had friends throughout the country who helped celebrate her 60th birthday.

She had a passion for the outdoors, loved animals, and belonged to the Peninsula Tramping Club. She was keen to develop a talent for watercolours.

Trish had booked a trip to Europe in May 2011, with intentions to visit family and retrace her father Charles' footsteps as a soldier in World War II.