Fiona Donne recollects moments from her life. Photo / Stuart Munro
Fiona Donne has been one of the movers and shakers in the Whanganui suburb of Aramoho. She talks to Laurel Stowell about her life.
She's always well groomed, but most of her clothes are from op shops.
She looks posh but she's not a snob.
She is active in community groups but doesn't like being on committees.
She was on the Wanganui District Council for six years, but doesn't drive a car.
Fiona Donne is a familiar figure in the outer reaches of Aramoho. She walks for 35 minutes a day, fast, bolt upright and in carefully chosen clothes.
She knows almost everybody and often stops to talk.
In fact she set about getting to know her neighbours as soon as she and husband Peter bought their house in Somme Pde. They arrived from England in 1973, when the New Zealand Government was desperate for teachers and Peter got a job at Wanganui High School.
"When we moved here I wanted to get friendly with people. I met Ruth next door and we decided we needed a community group," she said.
They started one, with outings and craft afternoons in the hall near St Laurence's Church.
"It was really good fun, because we had picnics in the park and we went all over those hills for walks. We went into the Christmas Parade and we won the first prize."
The group decided Aramoho was "the forgotten suburb" and needed footpaths and streetlights. Without asking her, they put Fiona up for election to the Wanganui District Council.
"I was horrified. I had never been on a committee in my life."
It was too late to withdraw, and she and Peter duly campaigned. At the election night party Fiona discovered she had been voted on, and was horrified all over again.
The town clerk George Tyler was horrified too. No one from Aramoho had ever been on the council, and Fiona was quite a bit younger than the other councillors. It was all so new to her that she was surprised to find councillors were paid.
She was the third woman ever to be elected to the council, following Jenny Tolhurst and Phyllis Brown, who was still there.
"I don't think she was ever very happy about having me there."
Ron Russell was the mayor and Fiona was given roles with parks and reserves, the 2ZW radio station and Whanganui Regional Museum board. For a while she had a PEP job, getting members and funding for the museum.
The biggest council issue was getting Whanganui's sewage out of the river, and she stayed on council for another three years to see the first treatment plant into action. She didn't stand again.
"They all wanted me to stay on. I thought 'No, I've had enough of this'. I'm not a committee person. I've always preferred to get on and do something rather than sit about and wait while people talk it through."
She and Peter had two children, Melanie (now Merenia) and Mandy. Fiona got a part-time job as an occupational therapist at Jubilee Hospital working with old people, then at Pine Tree Lodge.
She and Mandy got jobs as film extras in a Billy T James TV special filmed in Brunswick Hall, and also in three movies about Ronald Hugh Morrieson books.
"It was a very interesting experience - well paid, well fed, but oh long hours hanging about. I certainly would not like to be a film star."
Peter retired from teaching art at Wanganui High School at 60, a job he had liked. He had a painting and bone carving studio at their house.
It was one of the first Open Studios, and also opened to visitors on Sundays.
When he became afflicted with mental illness Fiona cared for him at home for two "horrendous" years.
"He started being so different from my lovely Pete. He could be quite violent and aggressive."
Finally, on a Labour Weekend, police took Peter away in handcuffs, struggling and yelling. He had disappeared, then leapt out of a wardrobe and tried to grab Fiona. He spent the rest of his life in various institutions.
Fiona kept busy with volunteer work - Meals on Wheels which she did with a driver, and reading to the blind on radio on Saturday mornings.
Friends drove her to places, and she also made good use of the Aramoho bus service.
"When on council one could get a really good idea of what our community thought and wanted. Also one gets to meet such a variety of people, all friendly and chatty, and our drivers are such a helpful bunch," she said.
She likes a challenge, and campaigned for three years for bus shelters in Wicksteed St and Victoria Ave, and a seat on St John's Hill.
"I'm really pleased with those."
She writes a lot of letters and has also singlehandedly made sure there is still a post box in Somme Pde near the Whanganui River Top Ten Holiday Park.
"I always take my letters up there. Everybody thinks the post box is amazing. The cemetery and camp people use it."
She also keeps track of graffiti and broken glass, and welcomes new neigbours.
"It means you get to meet all the new people and they get to know each other. It's a very friendly place around here."
Involvement with people is nothing new to Fiona. She was brought up in a village near London and hated school. She made lifelong friends during three years of nursing training in London, and another lot in Surrey while she had young children and they formed a babysitting group.
The young Fiona Innes was "reasonably attractive" and had boyfriends, but "they all liked me better than I liked them", she said. She met Peter Donne, an artist brought up in India, at a party.
"I walked in, and across the room there was a man, and I knew I would go home with him that night."
The two married in 1960. They came to New Zealand because Peter was pining for a place with more sunshine and the New Zealand embassy offered a teaching position in Whanganui.
It was a sudden decision, and Fiona didn't want to go. She went upstairs in their Surrey house, and looked out the window at her beautiful garden.
"I didn't want to leave. Then a voice suddenly behind me said 'All will be well'. I was absolutely staggered. From that moment I felt peace. To this day I know that was God."
The trip to New Zealand was six weeks aboard the Ellinis, a Greek passenger ship. There were flowers and a written welcome from New Zealand in their cabin.
They didn't know anyone in New Zealand, and after they arrived people told them they wouldn't like Whanganui, with its "filthy river".
After settling in a bit they looked for houses, and Fiona didn't want to live on St John's Hill.
Aramoho was barely thought suitable, but the small window panes of a newish house in Somme Pde looked "more English" and right to her. Peter needed lots of space, there was a farm across the road and they bought the section behind them as well.
Fiona made trips back to England to see her family and friends she made during her nursing training in London. On one trip she started feeling ill, and was eventually diagnosed with a lung abscess.
"I couldn't breathe. I thought I was going to die."
She had a major operation and was on oxygen in Wellington Hospital for 16 days. After that she had intermittent poor health for the next five years. That has now cleared, with no explanation, and she is into her eighth decade. She attributes her renewed health to help from God.
She still walks for 35 minutes a day, usually up to the cemetery to "call in on Pete and talk to the graveyard people", and longer on Sundays.
Life has had its ups and downs, but she says what really counts is how you cope with them.
"I feel very grateful for all the years spent in New Zealand, especially our lovely Whanganui, and Aramoho in particular."
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