Leading from the front issuu

Catherine always spoke fondly of ‘living-in’ at Hinepare
Nurses’ Home with its stunning views over Hawke Bay
and the Kaweka Ranges. Loving everything about this
time of her life, she also came top of her class in 1949,
winning the coveted Florence Nightingale Award.
Soon after arriving in the Bay, Catherine met Pat at the
home of her closest friend Janet McKenzie who as luck
would have it, lived in Cameron Road right next door to
the Magills. Catherine visited Janet one night and the
plan was to play bridge, but the group was ‘short of a
hand’. Fortuitously Pat was home so was invited to ‘pop
over and make up a pair’ — a prophetic invitation if ever
there was one.
Although Pat’s first impressions of Catherine were of
“a gracious and pretty woman, out of my league” in time
they were engaged and in April 1951, the couple married
in New Plymouth at St Joseph’s Catholic Church.
Within the confines of the era, their marriage was
judged “mixed”. Catherine was brought up a Catholic
and Pat was considered Protestant, although by now
he’d shed his strict religious education and if he had to
label himself, he would say, “Free Thinker.”
Because Catherine’s marriage to Pat was frowned on
by Catholic doctrine, their ceremony had to be held in
the vestibule beside the main church, which was disappointing
to the young bride. Pat was disappointed too
that Robert didn’t attend the wedding but given the
combination of his son marrying a ‘Doolan’ and being
Pat and Marie create their own worlds 21