In 1958 she received her NZ Registered General Nurses medal, and in 1960 passed her maternity exams with top marks for the country. She became a registered Midwife in 1962 and in 1963 received the Diploma of Nursing Administration at the NZ Post Graduate School.
Moya grew up in Island Bay just a few streets away from the Home of Compassion where she visited her aunt, her mother’s sister, Sister Zita, regularly. From a very early age she had decided she wanted to be a Sister of Compassion, so it was no surprise to anyone that at the age of twenty, she left home, her secretarial job at Harrisons, and her many friends at Island Bay. She was given the religious name of Sister Anne when she received the habit. Apparently she had always wanted to be called by that name. Her first years at the Home were busy ones, spent mostly with the babies in the nursery, or with the many children that passed through the Home during those years.
However, she was soon called to begin her training as a nurse. This was done at the Home of Compassion Hospital which was still a Nursing Training School, where she revelled in the stimulation of the study, new knowledge and experience. Not only did she pass her General, Obstetric, Maternity and Midwifery exams with honours but she was the top student in the nation for the maternity papers. Then she rose to the challenge of a Post-Graduate year in Hospital Administration in preparation for becoming Matron of the hospital which she led from 1966 to 1984. During these years the hospital was responding to the major changes in the structure of the New Zealand health system. These changes never seemed to stop. There were changes in hospital administration, in nursing training moving to the Polytechnics which meant we had to close our training school. There were consequences which led the Sisters to re-license under the appropriate legislation such as the Private Hospitals Act and Old Peoples’ Homes Act where formerly we had been with the Charitable Trusts Act.
After Sister Anne’s retirement as Matron, she still had the interests of the hospital at heart. As a member of the Leadership Team she was very involved in the decisions regarding its future – especially the re-building of the new Home. Ill health was already beginning to cast its shadow upon her life, but she contributed valiantly to the many concerns that faced the Congregation. One of her deepest interests was being part of the commissioning of the authoritative book on Suzanne Aubert’s life and the beginning of the process of her Canonisation. Anne was in her element being at the heart of all this. Another great interest was arranging for Retreats for the Sisters at Jerusalem, the place of our ‘beginning’. Her commitment to her vocation as a Sister of Compassion was indomitable. It was based on her strong faith and essentially simple straight forward spirituality. The love of God to whom she dedicated her life and the people around her and beyond – this was the core of her life.
As Father Denis O’Hagan said at her funeral Mass: ‘Anne put her hope in God; she knew that Christ had blessed her with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ. She understood she had already received eternal life and that she would be raised on the last day. This is what sustained her in good times and bad, and this confident hope is the challenge and legacy she leaves us.’
Born Entered Professed Died Place of Death Place of Burial
12.11.1929 15.02.1949 15.09.1951 22.02.2010 Silverstream Karori Cemetry
