Well-known plant-lover and resident passes on
Golden Bay lost a vastly knowledgeable self-taught botanist and local identity with the recent death of Edith Lord.
Edith, originally from Rochdale in Lancashire, came to New Zealand in 1953 with her husband-to-be, George. They settled at the Cobb where George worked for the forest service until 1967.
Their elder daughter Lesley remembers having a very happy early childhood at the Cobb, despite being snowed in during winter.
“It was a privileged upbringing. I remember Dad roaring at the stags and the stags answering him,” said Lesley. “As part of his job, he used to have to check the rain gauges at various places, so he’d take off in his clinker dinghy and be gone a few days at a time. Mum told me she used to go with him before I came along.”
Edith and George acquired vast knowledge of the plants that grow in the Cobb Valley. “There are hundreds of hebes that grow up there and she could identify each one just by looking at them,” said Lesley.
Edith was instrumental in establishing the native plant garden at the carpark near the beginning of the Lake Sylvester track. She liked the idea that less mobile people could drive up there and enjoy the plants.
The Lords lived with two other families at the dam and Lesley said that neither of her parents wanted to leave. “Dad was promoted against his will, so we came down and lived in Takaka when I was about five,” said Lesley.
In Takaka, Edith became a guide leader and continued to be a gardener, tramper and avid Forest and Bird member. Her old friend June Clark said that their “great tramping partnership began in about 1975 and continued for many years in all seasons, in all weathers, for varying lengths of time, botanising for small treasures, surrounded by magnificent scenery and enjoying the simple pleasures of being alive”.
“These were always special times wherever we tramped, but it was always in the Cobb or Sylvester that we made our spiritual home. Mytton’s and Bushline Huts were our huts,” said June.
For her last three years Edith lived at the Joan Whiting Memorial Home, where Lesley said her mother received care that was “beyond exceptional”.
“She was just so happy there,” she said. “We can’t speak highly enough of the amazing care they took of our mother.”
Those who knew and loved Edith describe her as knowledgeable, practical, compassionate, determined and loyal, and say they will miss her sense of humour.
Neil Wilson
