Leaving a legacy of love

The sound of the waves breaking gently on the nearby shore played a low lament as family and friends gathered in the heat of a Mandang summer.

In life, Dame Maureen Hill, OBE MBE, bought people together, people who now gathered again, united in their love and respect.

Dame Maureen Hill, nee Leov, 85, grew up on D’Urville Island and settled in Mandang in Papa New Guinea with husband Peter in 1969.

It was here, in the country she loved, with the people she had helped and cared for that she was bid farewell after losing her battle with heart failure.

Her sister Helen Dyer, who travelled from Marlborough to be at the funeral, says she had spoken with her loved older sister the day before she had died on July 28.

“She had heart failure for a long time but just ignored it, she had a job to do, and nothing was going to stop her,” she smiles.

“The day before [she passed] she told me ‘They’ve told me I’ve got to keep my feet up.’ She had no plans to do so and just ignored how ill she was.

“We weren’t brought up to just sit around, we were taught that nothing comes for free, and you have to do your bit.”

Maureen’s service was held at outside the Mandang Resort, a farewell spanning more than two hours as people paid tribute.

Her casket was carried in an ambulance to her final resting place at Alexshafen, accompanied by a police car driving ahead with its lights on.

Her nephew Daniel Dyer sat in the ambulance with his aunt, determined to accompany her on her last journey.

“He wanted to do that for her,” Helen says.

Two official cry-ins, professional mourners, wept and wailed, their tears capturing the sense of loss felt by all.

Mourners, including Helen’s husband Dave and son Daniel, piled flowers high on Maureen’s casket as they filed past, many crying openly as choirs sang.

Summing up what Maureen meant to the community, one woman, Gloria, a fellow member of the women’s community council, spoke of Maureen’s “huge heart.”

“Thank you for the goodness that came out of Maureen Hill, lovely goodness, mighty goodness.

“She was a great woman with a big heart.”

During her decades on the island, Maureen had helped hundreds of people, a legacy that she passes on to those she had helped.

As a child growing up on the family’s farm at Greville Harbour on D’Urville Island, Maureen was homeschooled alongside her two brothers and two sisters.

Helen says it was Maureen who helped care for her as their parents worked hard on the farm.

“She looked after me as a child and that’s why I helped her anytime she needed me.”

It was Maureen’s determination to help others too that saw her receive numerous awards for her work with children and charity organisations.

A teacher by trade, she always advocated for preschool education and set up her own preschool at home which ran for 51 years.

Maureen helped other generations too, advocating for abused woman and helping them build better lives, Helen explains.

“She used to go out at night and search the streets for women who needed help.

“She didn’t suffer fools gladly, but she was always there for those in need.”

It is some of these women who will continue Maureen’s work, ensuring her legacy lives on,” says Helen.

“She will never be forgotten.”