Whanganui volunteer of the month: Margaret Rowan

Margaret Rowan with her Volunteer of the Month certificate.

Margaret Rowan is Volunteer Whanganui’s December volunteer of the month. She was nominated by Renae Kilmister, fundraising and communications manager at Hospice Whanganui.

“I would love to nominate our beautiful Margaret Rowan for volunteer of the month,” she said. “Margaret has been decorating Hospice with her flowers for over 25 years. Margaret’s personality is as vibrant as her flowers, the team absolutely love having her around, she is so valued and cared for by us all.”

Rowan started with care assisting, with a nurse working a shift. She had heard about the Hospice and was happy to think she may be able to help.

“I started off sitting with patients who were not able to be left on their own.

“My flowers went on the dining table on Mondays when the patients came in. I spent five years at Richmond House before moving to Virginia Rd, where the present facility was built in a paddock.

“We had five patients at Virginia Rd, more than we had before. My job was to put flowers in the rooms.

“I kept taking the flowers in and helped plant the gardens that are at the Hospice today, assisted by my husband and others, we had a wonderful time doing that. With the planting, I didn’t need to take in my flowers anymore up there. All the flowers I arrange come from the Hospice garden. These days I make a bouquet of flowers on the reception desk, each Monday and the same again on Friday,” she said.

Rowan is a floral artist and was in a floral art group in Whanganui for a few years. “I took my floral art knowledge to Hospice,” she said.

“I was asked to take on the job of assistant lay chaplain, and I enjoyed that for some time until it stopped.” Rowan was an Anglican lay minister at All Saints in Whanganui East, visiting rest homes once a month.

A South African doctor at Hospice Whanganui once told her she was “sowing the seeds of love” every time she went into the patients’ rooms. “It’s a wonderful place to work, the staff are all caring,” said Rowan.

She was born in Whanganui and left when married to live on nearby farms. Her husband was a chief fire officer in the Rural Fire Service going from Mangamahu to Waverley, and Waitōtara. Margaret was working in the control room of the Rural Fire Service, and her daughter carried on the tradition.

Just before Margaret’s husband died, he was awarded a 30-year service badge and certificate. Now Margaret can put her volunteer certificate next to his.