ernestalfredwood2

MEMORIES OF ERNEST A WOOD

Memories from his Grand Daughter:

'We called him Grandpa. I held him in some awe. He never held us or gave cuddles but would poke us in the stomach and whistle! or put you on his knee and spank hiS hand.. we'd squirm with embarassment.. woke me once by tickling my nose with a feather. 'Come on, Come on - say Hooray' he'd say if a family arguement ensued. He'd be known as an irrascible gentelman - but was full of good works.. Chairman and Sunday School superintendent as well as kindly services as in the article below. He had a brisk walk supposedly assisted by his stick - walk walk, tap swing, walk walk. Apparently his legs got a bit crushed between 2 cars and he developed cancer in one.

He had a fernery and magnolia glass house and huge shade house. Kept chooks and would give us one each Christmas. Gave us money in an envelope. Grandpa drove a brown car with a wool blanket over the front seat. The garage was stacked with mags and comics and his back porch with biscuits and lolly tins (to give away).'

Article from the 'Nelson Evening Mail', Thursday, June 28th, 1951

'Bearing a little load of biscuits, magazines, sweets or similar comforts, a likeable elderly man will walk into a ward at the Nelson Public Hospital next Sunday. Of medium height and a slight smile on a wrinkled face topped by a sparse crop of silvery hair, as he stops at the beds to exchange a few genial words with the occupants and leave each one some little gift. To many people he is a stranger, but there are thousands of people, not only in Nelson Province, who will immediate say, "Ah, that's Mr Wood!" For it is now 50 years since 75-year-old Mr E.A.Wood became actively interested in hospital visiting.

And Mr Wood is always ready to listen sympathetically to anyone's problems or give a bit of advice when it is asked for. He finds that the elderly folk in particular are grateful for this.

Asked what had stimulated his interest in this work when in his middle twenties, Mr Wood said he had noticed how some patients had had regular visitors while others, from places like French Pass and Collingwood, had rarely been so fortunate. He had decided to be visitor to all of them.

Attached to no organisation which does this work, Mr Wood has never lost his enthusiasm and, although welcoming others wishing to accompany him, he has often gone alone.

Christmas is the time when he makes a special effort and Mr Wood has not missed paying his calls on Christmas morning for 45 years.

SWEETS BY THE TON

Illustrating how times have changed, he commented the other day that sweets had cost 4d or 5d a pound when he had first started, whereas they were now as much as 3/- a pound. "I must have distributed tons during all these years," he reflected.

In answer to a question, Mr Wood said there were some people who were suspicious of someone wishing to do a good turn to a stranger - they wondered what was behind it all and thought he would gain something material. He explained, however, that, although he appreciated the gratitude of the people for whom he tried to do a little, he wished none of them to feel under any obligation to him.

"The majority of the people don't realise what personal satisfaction there is in helping those who are just a little out of fortune," he added. "That is sufficient reward."

Mr Wood makes morning and evening visits to the Nelson Public Hospital on two Sundays each month and also makes at least one visit a month to each of the metal hospitals. He goes to the Girls' Special School at Richmond each quarter. At all of these institutions he is one of the few people allowed to come and go at any reasonable time. Besides distributing gifts, Mr Wood organises Bible classes for the children and church services in the ward and recently took on the responsibility of making the arrangements for a concert party which visits the hsopitals.

THEY REMEMBERED

That many do not forget his Christian actions has been demonstrated to Mr Wood time and again. When he was in Takaka five years ago he met an old lady who said she remember his kindness - and it was 28 years previously that she had been in hospital. On the same holiday Mr Wood stopped to give a lift to an old prospector from the Arotoki district. He had been in hospital for a long spell ten years before, when a log had rolled on him and immediate recognition was evident on his face as he opened the car door.

Yet, even after half a century Mr Wood is as keen as ever on his self adopted mission and hopes to carry on for many more years."

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