Middlepark resident from 2011 to 2016 Reflections on living next door to St Thomas of Canterbury College

SISTER ENID LAGAN

Enid has been a part of the College for the last, nearly six years and a great friend of mine. Once she moved into Middlepark Resthome we met up and started plotting projects for our boys and the residents. 

Initially some of the year 13 boys went to mass at the rest home on fridays and then we branched into reading programmes with learning support and our boys have had a great service from Enid and her wisdom and humour. Every friday we have caught up and while the boys play bowls with the residents we nattered about many of life's journeys - twists and turns.

She has been reprimanded often for her speed around the rest home and told to slow down in hallways ... but no such restrictions were placed upon her at STC. She has found every way to get through the grounds to get to early morning mass. The building programmes, around school, have made the journey difficult at times but the odd crash has never stopped her.

The boys at STC have been part of Enid's journey and she always tells me how polite and friendly they all are. When Enid met me she also attached a piece of string to my neck so that whenever any issue with her computer had arisen or another plot was hatched ... I would be summoned. Computer technician I am not but we managed to repair the "missing e-mail icon".

One highlight for me was Enid asking to be let into the era of cell phones. Initially this terrified me as I have given up teaching my parents how to programme the TV channel ... BUT ... we persevered and now Enid can use a smart phone but she feels that the phone is, at times, smarter than her. After many "pocket calls" we have mastered the phone ... and provided vodaphone with some funds!!

I share the same birthday as Enid and so the photo below with us heading out to Mercy House for lunch. She has been an inspiration to me with her "listening ear" and now the "piece of string" will just be that little bit longer and stretch to Nazareth Care Facility. 

Toki sio Enid 

Kāore te kumara e kōrero mō tōna ake reka

The kumara (sweet potato) does not say how sweet she is

This proverbs accentuates the the value of humbleness that I see in Enid.

Brendan Biggs

PS: Below is an article that appeared in STUFF about Sr Enid that fills in a little of the background.  

ARTICLE FROM STUFF:

CATE BROUGHTON  February 22 2016

With just a change of clothes and a toothbrush, many elderly Christchurch rest home residents were bused out of the city in the middle of the night after the February 2011 earthquake. Of the 300 residents evacuated, Sister of Mercy nun Enid Lagan,  was one of the few to survive the experience and return to the city. A Nazareth House rest home resident at the time, Lagan remembers the seven hour bus trip to Nelson vividly.

"We had to be dragged, literally, on to the coach."

With the rest home unsafe to enter, about 40 residents were taken to the home's activities room hours after the ground stopped shaking. They spent the night and following day holed up in the room, being read to, sung to and fed by the Nazareth House sisters and staff, Lagan said.

Without warning at 8pm the following day, they were told they were going to Nelson, immediately. Lagan said the group travelled through the night, with no toilet stops. Some residents were upset when told they could not be taken to the toilet, but most were "stilled in fear", Lagan said.

They arrived the following morning at a home in Omaio that had been closed for the previous 18 months.

Staff were there to welcome them and carry them off the bus. Lagan and about five others were then taken to an established rest home in Stoke.

"It was a lovely place and I didn't want to come back to 'earthquake land'."

Three months later Lagan and another sister did return to Christchurch. She hoped to return to the rebuilt Nazareth House rest home when it opened in October. The previous buildings were demolished. Age Concern Canterbury manager Simon Templeton was working for the Canterbury District Health Board at the time and helped manage the evacuation.

He said the process was tough for older people.

"Generally they are a pretty stoic bunch, they've been through a lot in their lives. Most were very understanding and thankful for the help."

Templeton said he regretted having to move elderly people at night, but they were trying to keep them safe in an uncertain environment. The earthquakes were an opportunity for some rest home providers, Nazareth House Australasia chief executive Kath Fox said.

The organisation's new 80 bed home, hospital and retirement village would be more like a home and not an institution, she said.

"We all experienced that grief and loss and everything was so bleak but we have now achieved something that we wouldn't have been able to before the earthquakes."

Fox said many of those who were evacuated wanted to move back to Nazareth House.

"We just have to hope the trauma of relocating again won't be too much for them."

- Stuff