Damaris was the first of two children to Thomas Russell and Kathleen Patmore. She was born in 1932, in Wollongong, where her mother’s parents lived. She went to primary school there, then they moved to Springwood in the Blue Mountains (Maris had Bronchiectasis, and they were advised the mountain air would do her good). She went to Katoomba High School, and fondly remembered the daily commute, and the friends who would join the train at the various stations along the way. She was one of only a small number at the time who continued to do “the leaving” (certificate), as the HSC was then called. Though her reminiscences on childhood were full of complaint about being ever pushed to achieve highly in schoolwork, her mother’s insistences no doubt helped her achieve that rare scholarship and bursary to study at ‘the University’ (there was only the one in Sydney then). She studied in the Faculty of Medicine, graduating in 1956, where she met her future husband (Brian Purser). They married in 1955, and lived in Sydney for the next 20 years, apart from a period in the USA, where Brian did post-graduate studies. They divorced in 1977. Her next 20 years were spent happily with her soul mate, and after he died, Maris moved back to Wollongong (where one of her children happened to be living), finding much needed comfort in the daily company of a grandchild for her own, physically very challenging, final decade.
Maris’ whole working life was spent in various Sydney hospitals, beginning at Rachel Forster in Redfern, ending near Westmead. In between were 7 years out of her profession to raise three children, appointments at Rydalmere and Callan Park, and a change in career direction, from psychiatry to palliative care. She became the CMO of a Wesley Mission nursing home, turning it into a palliative care hospital for patients leaving Westmead hospital and unable to return home. Maris was an extremely empathetic and effective carer for those rapidly approaching their end of life.
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Damaris is 32 degrees from Zendaya Coleman, 24 degrees from Sting Sumner, 23 degrees from Josh Brolin, 27 degrees from Timothée Chalamet, 26 degrees from José Ferrer, 24 degrees from Frank Herbert, 20 degrees from Richard Jordan, 26 degrees from David Lynch, 19 degrees from Virginia Madsen, 27 degrees from Charlotte Rampling, 20 degrees from Patrick Stewart and 25 degrees from Denis Villeneuve on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.