'She scratched our souls'

Twiggy was the town drunk when she died. She was made scrawny by alcohol and was regarded as a crank; the kind of social nuisance people normally shun.

But Waipukurau mourned her and her twins - adopted at birth - are amazed by how their mother's death has affected the town.

"We will all be the poorer for her going because she challenged the goodness in us," said Waipukurau's Shirley Duffy about Marion Ann Brown, 56.

She was an eccentric drinker, sometimes the town crank, and would cruise other people's funerals to indulge in the free food afterwards.

Yet when it came to her own funeral, hundreds crammed into the small-town Catholic church at nearby Waipawa to farewell the woman they called Twiggy, after the sixties English supermodel.

Her death was unexpected and perhaps violently sudden.

She was delivered in a car, dead and seated upright to a local police officer.

Police are still investigating the 73-year-old male driver of the car in which she was found dead. He has been charged with assault and granted name suppression.

As mourners filed out of church, 175 people stopped to sign the book of condolence.

"Country towns are at their best in situations like this," says Duffy. "Marion was a local identity. You'd be asked for something and it was irritating - but it was good for us. She was really good for us...she scratched our souls."

Twiggy's life was as troubled as her death. "She was a character," says cousin Allan Wenzlick. "She yelled out at everybody. Some people would say things to her, but she wouldn't hold a grudge."

Booze was her demon, and the town knew it. They miss her at the Tavistock Hotel, at the Leopard Hotel, at the Commercial Hotel. They knew her at the Returned Services' Association, although she only came for funerals, when the food was free.

She was seen at a lot of funerals, particularly at the aftermatch, near the sandwich plate. It wasn't the only place she ate, says Duffy.

"But she certainly knew where to find the free meals."

Twiggy was a mum of twins Nicholas and Sarah Lang, fostered to a Hastings family. Laurel Lang, who raised the twins, says: "Some people might think people don't care about someone like her.

"But the number of people who turned out showed people do care.

"If people didn't care, they wouldn't turn up."

They cared enough to carpet her doorstep, and backyard, with flowers. Son Nick Lang, says he and his sister saw her just twice in the past six years; their 21st last November and her 50th in 2000.

The 21st was 'the first time we'd seen her and she wasn't drunk, I'd admit that", he said. "She was really happy and really helpful. She couldn't stop thanking mum (Laurel Lang) for everything she'd done for us."

There were no illusions about their birth mum; neither Nick or Sarah Lang drink. "You're more likely to be prone to it if you're born to it. I don't want to go down that track."

Beyond that, they didn't know a great deal about her. Nick reckons he might have learned more about Twiggy at the funeral than he knew before. "She always told people she loved us and how proud she was of us. Even though she was quite ill with the alcohol there were a lot of people who liked her for what she was. It kind of opened my eyes a bit."