Marion Rose (Elliott) Pfahlert (1931 - 2012)

Marion was my older sister. She was eight and a half years older than me and was really a second mother to Wendy and me. My earliest memory of her was of visiting her at boarding school and she had made an enormous pompom ball out of wool which she gave to us. She was unhappy boarding and never really forgave Mum and Dad for sending her there. They had made the decision because Marion was lonely as her friends all lived on the other side of town. They thought that as a boarder she would be among other girls of her own age all the time, but in reality Marion was a home body and was desperately homesick. When Wendy and I started school she would drag us up to the "boarders' side" each day after school and wash our faces and hands, mend our stockings if we had fallen over, clean our shoes, tidy our hair put our hats on straight, make sure that we were wearing our gloves and then pack us off home often with a small bag of peppermints in our pockets. Mum thought she had the best small girls in Christchurch. Unfortunately she found out that we were totally normal after Marion left school and we arrived home in a scruffy state just like most other children. Just before she left school Dad took her up to Wellington for a holiday. He made her make all the arrangements and gave her the money to pay all the bills. He thought it was a good exercise for her in independence as she was a very shy person. I remember being utterly distraught as they were going by ferry and in my six year old mind ships got bombed. It never occurred to me that the war was over!

Marion was the one that I went to with my troubles. She would keep my secrets and give me good advice when I needed it. Marion would take Wendy and me to all the Roy Rogers films that came to town. She took me to my first dance, talked my mother into letting me wear a little bit of lipstick when she got me my first holiday job in her office and bought me my first pair of nylons. So many firsts! When she was about twenty four she learned to drive. Dad would let her drive his precious car, but only if Mum was with her. So, sometimes in the summer we would resort to coercing our mother so that we could go to the beach. Once we all three picked Mum up, popped her kicking and giggling into the bath and threatened to turn the cold tap on if she didn't agree to go out in the car! She agreed in a hurry. Marion had a lot of boyfriends over the years, and she endured a huge amount of teasing with good humour. When she met Andrew it was obvious that he was "the one". They married in 1964 and went to live in Andrew's home town of Greymouth. Just over two years later Andrew was transferred to Christchurch. They were famous for their dinner parties and it was a feature of their married life. We had many very merry family gatherings at their house and it has never been the same since their passing. Marion's best qualities were her loyalty, her complete devotion to her family and her good manners. She was always nice to everybody and though she was shy she had many, many friends.