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Home / Whanganui Chronicle

93 years in the making: Win's story

By Liz Wylie
Whanganui Chronicle·
4 Aug, 2014 06:56 PM3 mins to read

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GIVING BACK: Win Ruffhead is still active at the Red Cross bookshop.  Photo/Stuart Munro
GIVING BACK: Win Ruffhead is still active at the Red Cross bookshop. Photo/Stuart Munro

GIVING BACK: Win Ruffhead is still active at the Red Cross bookshop. Photo/Stuart Munro

She may be 93 but that does not prevent Win Ruffhead from donating her time to the Red Cross bookshop and Wanganui Age Concern every week.

Although she is still recovering from a virus, Mrs Ruffhead is back behind the counter at the book shop - and she has done some baking.

"I've had a bit of a rough trot," she says, "but I'm coming right now."

Little Win Hoare was just two years old when she left her birthplace of Timaru for Wellington yet she has a vague memory of the ferry crossing. "It was a bit rough as I recall."

Her family settled in Lower Hutt where she attended Randwick School and later Petone Memorial Technical College.

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A hockey player, she became a member of the senior Wellington representative team and remembers thrashing Manawatu at a Levin game on September 3, 1939.

"We were on the train going back to Wellington in a celebratory mood when the train suddenly stopped and the driver came through with a police officer and told us that war had been declared.

"It is a very strong memory because we were jubilant about our win and then we learned that our lives were going to change so dramatically."

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Word War II created work for people with administrative skill and Win worked for the defence department in the records office.

The war also eventually led to her meeting her future husband, Michael John Ruffhead.

"My brother was in the navy and was de-mobbed in London after the war. He worked his passage home on an English merchant navy ship and he introduced me to Michael who was the first mate.

"We went out on a couple of dates and got along very well."

The couple married and, after settling in Lower Hutt, they had three daughters.

"We had three little horse-mad girls and we were constantly getting calls from the ranger to say one of the ponies had escaped."

The Ruffheads decided to move to a more rural location where there was room for horses and settled on Wanganui.

"We lived in a lovely, big place at Marybank that really suited our lifestyle."

Michael Ruffhead worked as skipper of the ship Wairoa carrying ironsands from Waipipi. He drowned when the ship went down off the Wanganui Bar in 1978.

"It was a very difficult time and I did miss him terribly but I had children and I had to get on with things."

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Mrs Ruffhead moved to a house in Karaka St where she lived for 28 years.

"It was a nice place with lovely views but it got too big for me."

Her three daughters all live in Wanganui and share their mother's zest for life.

"Sue still rides in show jumping events and she has more wins now than she did when she was younger.

"The other two train rescue dogs and they went down to help out in Christchurch after the earthquakes."

There are two granddaughters and two great-grandchildren in Australia.

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Despite her age, Mrs Ruffhead has a computer and knows how to operate it. "I mainly use it as a word processor," she says with a smile.

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