Such a special lady

• Published date: 26 January 2023
• Publication title: Mountain Scene

Clarice retired to Queenstown with her late husband, Bill, in the early ’80s after they left the family farm near Winton where they also raised five children

At 41, Clarice was diagnosed with bowel cancer, leaving her with a colostomy bag for the rest of her life.

From then on, her family say, she became ‘‘a passionate believer in the strength of positivity’’, passing that on to hundreds of patients she visited and sat with while they underwent surgery, then afterwards at their homes while they convalesced.

She’d bake shortbread and muffins for hospital patients, delivering them to hospitals in Invercargill then, later, Queenstown, in her trusty cane basket — her baking, often even before dawn, earned her the nickname, ‘the muffin lady’.

She’d also write letters of encouragement to bowel cancer survivors and the like.

For her services to patients, Clarice received a Queen’s Service Medal in 1980.

In ’92, she and Bill were also awarded prestigious Paul Harris Fellowships by Queenstown’s Rotary club, an honour rarely bestowed on couples.

Her family say she was a glass-half-full type, took pretty much everything in her stride and never held a grudge.

‘‘When she was a bit angry, the eyes would flash and the crooked index finger would...