| Obituaries |
Pamela Stanhope (Swift) CaseyPamela Stanhope Casey was a feminist and it was during her nursing training that she began her lifelong crusade for better and more equitable conditions for women - see WEL Members Written by Fay Rae, "Stonehenge", Jugiong 2726 Pamela Stanhope (Swift) Casey was born in Sydney on the 14th May 1910 and was the second daughter of Maude (Becke) and Edley Swift and she died 17th November 2009 in the Kempsey District Hospital. Pam's father, Edley Swift, was a Macquarie Street dentist, while her mother had training in Art. The children had a much loved nanny. However their parents divorced when she and her beloved sister Adelaide (Addie) were quite young, and they moved with their mother to South West Rocks, where their mother's sister was living with her pilot ship Captain husband and two small sons. At that time there were regular passenger/freight shipping runs to and from Sydney and up the Macleay River to Kempsey. South West Rocks must have been so isolated then and the two girls had a lot of freedom while their artist mother painted the local scenery. Pam recalled long early morning runs to the gaol before breakfast and never thought that her mother worried about her safety unduly. She remembered her father visiting only once! After some schooling, Pam and Addie were sent as boarders to PLC Armidale. The trip there involved an horrendous day long trip over a winding mountain road in a mail car that took passengers. Pam was always sick on this drive! On leaving school, a secretarial course at the Kempsey Convent was followed by further Business Studies in Newcastle. Whilst living there, Pam delighted in playing a violin in the Newcastle Orchestra. By the time she had completed her studies and was looking for work, the Great Depression had begun. Desperate for work and unable to find any in her area of training, she took the only job on offer - nursing! Knowing nothing whatsoever of the profession she attended the interview at a hospital and decided that she liked the atmosphere of purpose and commitment and accepted the offer. Pam trained in obstetrics at Royal North Shore Hospital in 1931/32 and this was followed by General Nursing training at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital from 1932-1936. The pay was poor and the hours were long and arduous but at least it was a job and she knew there were many more desperate women ready to take her place should she falter. It was during her nursing training that Pam began her lifelong crusade for better and more equitable conditions for women (see paper cuttings). In 1937/38 Pam took a well-earned break and sailed to England, then on to Europe before returning via Africa. Whilst in England Pam did some private nursing and also found the time to enjoy quite a social whirl with kind, well connected relations. Somewhat refreshed by this experience, Pam returned to nursing and continued her crusade for better conditions for patients and staff (see articles). After this daunting experience, Pam joined a good friend caring for very young orphan children at the 'Belhaven Home' in Sydney. When these children grew older and moved to the 'Good Hope' home near Bowral, Pam and a friend went into business running a sandwich/tobacconist shop. Pam said this was the first time she had ever felt she had any money! It was here that she met her future husband, Patrick Casey, when he came in to buy some tobacco. Pat was the manager of a large and rather isolated property in southern NSW and they were married at a registry office in Sydney in March 1954. And so began another chapter in Pam's life! Pat managed two different properties in the area before they ventured as pioneers onto their own property. Based on letters written to her mother and Addie, to reassure them of their well-being, an (as yet) unpublished manuscript was written of that experience. Throughout her long life, Pam was a prolific and interesting letter-writer on a wide variety of issues. Pam joined WEL when it was formed; we attended a WEL conference in Wagga; she talked another neighbour and myself into fronting the National Party 'big-wigs' at their conference in Cootamundra about their response to women's concerns and issues. Pam must have found me very young and naive but she perservered! It is a measure of her respect for and belief in WEL that it is a major beneficiary of her estate. After 23 rather hard years on the land with droughts, collapsing wool and stock markets and a bushyfire, they sold their property "Oak Vale" in 1988 and retired to South West Rocks where Pam's beloved sister Addie had returned to live in their old family home. Undaunted by advancing years, Pam proceed to design and organise the building of a new home on a block of land with magnificent views of the coast and Macleay River. Sadly, Pat was not well and died soon after the completion of their home. I suspect his heart remained with the land he'd loved and worked for so many years .... Pam's beloved sister Addie died in 1998 and Pam continued to live on in her own home under her own terms until 3 days before she died. Still intellectually involved and concerned about justice and equity and our need to respect the natural world as well as other current issues, she wrote a well-thought through treatise on world water in her 90's before her eyesight dimmed! A generation ahead of me, Pam was a treasured friend who taught and continues to teach me about integrity of spirit as I became even closer to her through the letters and documents she left behind. VALE, dear, dear friend. Don't rest in peace .... keep on fighting! The Macleay Argus, 1946 and part 2
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