My Mother, Maureen Krippner,
VMM McMonagle.
I have always thought
it cool that Mama had 3 names, Veronica, Mary, and was referred to her third
name, Maureen.
Mama taught me the
usual stuff... how to pan for gold, get tucker from the bush, skin a rabbit,
and put a tattoo in a cow's ear. All the essential skills for a modern
woman.
Her childhood was much different
from ours today, no computers, no Internet, no TV, a bicycle for transport. It
took all afternoon to bike to Pirongia for an ice cream. Her favourite colour
was yellow, like the sunflowers. She played cards and checkers in the evenings,
or read books. Her primary school
years were spent at Te Rore. For
her secondary education, she boarded in Hamilton, attended Sacred Heart Girls College
until she was 14, and then left school, at Fourth Form or year 10 now.
At 16,
Maureen’s first job was looking after the Field children while Mrs Rose Field
had a baby. Then she was with the
Monahans and the Mandenos. She
also milked the cows with her father, and helped her mother with bottling, jam
and baking.
Every month, there were social dances in Te Awamutu. Her brothers
John and Franz used to take her, in her Uncle Percy’s car, the 'bomb'
Dodge. There was supper, 'bring a
plate' and home before midnight.
Mama enjoyed the 3 Step Polonaise, because you changed your partner each
time. She met a tall man named
Carl McMonagle, at one of these Socials.
He had a motorcycle which she didn’t really like, but that didn’t get in
the way of their romance and they were married in 1956.
That same year they were share milking on Puketarata Rd for the
Wilsons, then 2 years later they were on the home farm at Te Rore, moving into
their own house in 1959 and taking over the Anderson farm in 1962. Their first
milk was sent by tanker in 1964. They
also raised and sold pigs. Another 90 acres was leased from the Rices and later
on in 1979 they purchased 18 acres from Hancocks; Tess milked there. In 1983
they increased their operation with the leasing of the Bridson’s property with
Joe running that from 1983. Carl died from bowel cancer in 1986 and Maureen
continued on farming with sharemilkers to help her, first with her daughter
Maureen and Paul and then with son Carl and Michele. Haymaking was a
family affair. I am sure most of the grandchildren would have helped to roll
the haybales into rows.
I have all these dates at my fingertips thanks to the record Mama
kept of important events, and I must say some of us children were a bit
disgruntled that there is absolutely no mention of the birth of any of her 11
children, 31 grandchildren or 5 great grandies. Surely we have to be the most
important things in the world to her, I mean that is what she always said. And Mama
said and did a lot of things in her 82 years – she was so energetic,
enthusiastic, encouraging and all for getting out there and doing things in
life.
From the outside, we might look
like a close family, but we have always been divided. – the big kids , and the
little kids. No matter how hard Mama
tried, the divide was always there.
Her philosophy for family life was, bring up your children in a loving
family, with rules to follow, plenty of outdoor activity, caring for each
other, and helping each other so they learn how to do things. A lot of women tell psychiatrists, that they
have a voice in their heads from their mother saying “don’t do this, you can’t
do that”. Well, not us. Our mother was always encouraging with us, telling us,
“yes you can, get out and do it”. She expected us to be involved in clubs, excursions
and community things. She was an incredible role model with the things she was
up to.
Climb
every mountain, perhaps was her motto.
As a teenager, she climbed Mt Ruapehu. She thought it was the most
adventurous thing she did growing up. We all
have climbed so many of New Zealand’s mountains with her. In 1999, Mama walked
the Milford track and continued to cross off the other Great Walks. When I
asked the whanau about which ones they shared with Nana, all New Zealand’ s
famous walks featured, as well as the majority of the National Parks. She made her
male grandchildren climb Mt Ruapehu, the day after doing the Tongariro
Crossing. When she
climbed Mt Taranaki (that was with Carl when she was 67), she wondered what the
hell she was doing, one step up, three steps sliding back in the scree. The
view from the top was worth it she said. I don’t know how many times we have
walked across Mt Pirongia. One time we went up the mountain at night, to see
the glow worms next to the stream.
It was dark in the forest, and a small young boy named Quinn said, “the
Glowworms scared the scariness away”.
It wasn’t just mountains.
Water was another great attraction-. Streams,
waterfalls, rivers, beaches, and entire coastlines. She has walked the beach from Aotea harbour to hot water
beach at Kawhia, and she the loved the Kai Moana. Mama would ring and say the tide is good, are you coming
over?. The whanau would drive out
to Ruapuke, near Raglan. Armed
with firewood, and buckets, we
would collect the mussels from the rocks.
Mama would light a bonfire, and the mussels would get cooked and eaten
there on the beach. She said they tasted best that way.
I am
sure Mama has explored all of New Zealand. Over the years she has completed five trips around the South
Island, discovering new places and experiences. She always challenged the
grandchildren to race her to the top of the BIG hills. I have been fortunate to share in
some of her adventures, especially down the South Island. I remember flying to
Queenstown and meeting up with her.
She taught Gina how to pan for gold. We explored around Wanaka and
Cromwell, and the rental car suffered from afraidium, as we drove up the hilly
gravel roads . Those roads were so rough, the windscreen wipers would come on
by themselves in the shaking car.
Mama
enjoyed going bush, especially the Summer camp life at Pureroa Forest Park with
the grandchildren. Exploring the bush
by foot or by quad bike was always a highlight, helping the grandchildren find
cave wetas, blue ducks, giant spiders, and native birds.
But
closer to home, Mt Pirongia was the best place on earth for Mama. She would get
so excited if it snowed on Mt Pirongia. Often she
would go up Te Tahi Rd track by herself, because it was a fine day and she'd be
able to see all the way down to the volcanic plateau and the snow on Mt
Ruapehu. Or she would be up some
other track to look at some plants that would be flowering. She loved natives
and she was forever getting us kids to climb the maunga and appreciate its
treasures which I am sure has rubbed off on all of us.
Mama
was undeniably an animal lover and as a dairy farmer, cows were an important
part of that. Dad and her believed a pedigree Milking Shorthorn herd best
suited the rolling hills of Te Rore and they set about showing their animals
and herd testing. They were really successful, winning Champion Cow at the 1975
Hamilton Royal Show with Leprechaun Dell Norma, Supreme Champion cow at the
1976 Palmerston North Royal Show with Leprechaun Dell Frills and taking out the
Top Milking Shorthorn Cow for production in 1978 with Leprechaun Dell Nelly who
was also the 1976 Auckland Easter Show Champion Cow and 1978 North Island
Champion Cow. All the cows on the farm were named and we had some choice ones
thanks to Mama; Frills,
Nellie, Norma, Witch, Buttercup, and Silly
Sausage to name a few. Even the bulls did not escape this
treatment. Poor Drongo.
As
well as the usual collection of farm animals, Mama also had Donkeys, and Toby
was a favorite. For several years, Toby was the lead part in the Te Awamutu
Anglican Easter celebrations. The Catholics wanted Toby for their Easter
Celebrations too, but as the Anglicans asked first, so Toby went there, Mama
was democratic like that.
Maureen would have to be described as a cat person through and
through. All us kids can still hear her calling ‘kitties’ as she was feeding
her beloved cats and having a cat purring in bed with her was as close to
heaven as she could get. One of our cats was called Popcorn, naturally because
she was fluffy, white & black. Gerard had brought her home from St Johns in
his shirt and he did that because Mama had taught us to love animals and he
knew Mama would not turn her away. We brought cats to her when
she was in hospital and you should have seen her face light up. In fact any
animal was a sure-fire success to bring along on a hospital visit to her, whether
it be a lamb, ducklings, cockatiels or even the biting Charlie Brown.
Her vegetable and fruit growing
skills were impressive. It was
nothing out of the ordinary for her to be feeding her entire family from her
garden. The crops included asparagus, beetroot, peas, carrots parsnips, redih,
tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, brocolli, 3 different variety of beans, onions,
shallots, garlic, leeks, silverbeet, cauliflower, zucchini, watercress,
sweetcorn, pumpking, orange marrow, butternut, buttercup, rockmelon, cucumber,
potatoes, kiwianas, kumera, peanuts, strawberries, rhybarb, and celery. Nestled amongst this bounty,
were her herbs, mint, peppermint, thyme, sage, parsley, basil, lemon balm and
oregano. Dotted around the property were oranges, lemonade, manderine, red
currents, plums, banana, loquats, feijoas, persimmons, figs, guavas, kiwifruit,
prunes, tamarillos and passionfruit. There were also the macadamias, chestnuts,
almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts. She
enjoyed trying to outdo her brother John at winning the points prize for
produce at the Te Rore Flower Show.
Mama never wasted anything. The
fruit was bottled, tomatoes made into relish, and apple pies baked, and the
berries made into jam. Her red current jelly was amazing. I think most of the
grandchildren have learnt the valuable life skill, of how to peel a hot Chestnut,
as well as knowing the right amount of force to hit the macadamia nut, with the
rock, on Nana’s verandah.
Mama had a creation centered
spirituality. She would marvel at
the amazing workmanship, of a birds nest, make us look closely at a bug, or how
the frost made crystal eruptions in the soil. And
fire, we have to mention fire, especially the need to light a fire for any
reason! Mama would build huge fires.
She always had something ready to burn. She moaned about having to get fire permits, and when there
was a fire ban, she would build fire piles, ready to be lit in Autumn. This
pyromaniac practise has been passed onto her children and grandchildren. I remember her telling me about a time
she was in the milking shed, and just happened to look towards the house 50m
down the road. A bright thin flame
was shooting straight up, metres high above the roofline. She was never sure which
child it was that day, experimenting with petrol and fire, but us children know
the likely suspects.
Mama’s
grandparents came from Bohemia, which is now part of the Czech Republic. Mama taught herself how to play the
accordion, and continued the Bohemian legacy of her grandparents, of musik and
dancing. She got together with Tom
Krippner, and Margaret Krippner, who were also accordion players. They provided musik in rest homes, rose
gardens, Te Rore socials, and family gatherings. She had the
ability to just hear a tune and then play it from memory on the piano or
accordian. Any chance she got, she would be
encouraging her children and grandchildren to develop their music interests
too.
It goes without saying that her grandchildren and great grandchildren
were the apple of her eye. If you lived close by, she would come around and
celebrate your birthday with you, otherwise you would get a phone call. Sometimes we would gather at her house
for the occasion. She would try to squeeze as many grandkids as possible, onto
the pew behind the dining table.
And the table would be a conglomeration of different treats she had
made, like apple cider, Russian fudge, pickled walnuts and roasted macadamias.
She was always trying new
foods, new recipes, new ways of doing things. She loved learning, was really
strong on New Zealand history, especially the local history, and was always
interested in the world. We would have lively discussions
on the paradigm shifts in relation to geo-political events. I wonder what she would of thought of
the first week of Donald Trump’s Presidency.
Now
Mother would have us believe that she never put a foot wrong. When asked what
was the worst trouble she had got herself into when she was younger, she was
shocked. “I was always a little
angel, “she claimed, and for some reason we found this hard to swallow. It was
this tendency of hers, to delight in using light fingers to bring home with her
cuttings of plants, pinecones and tasty tidbits on her outings. She always
maintained she was liberating them, and that the green grape cuttings she
smuggled in from the South Island, was the only thing she had ever stolen.
Mama
suffered two serious strokes in 2012 and she ended up in hospital care after
that. It was tough for such an active person but Mama’s personality continued
to shine through. The family wants to thank all those who supported and cared
for Mama during those last years and a special thank you to Leon who visited
her practically every night.
Maureen
was an extremely generous, supporting and encouraging woman, held in high
regard, with much love and affection.
Your being here today is testament to that. She may have devoted her
life to being a mother and a person of the earth, leading a humble life without
glamour and doing without many of the niceties of life. But we, her children
are infinitely grateful to her for that huge heart she had for all of us, and
the beautiful way she showed us how to live life to the full.
