Maker: Megan Holmes

Panel number: 484

Petition sheet number: Did not sign 1893 petition

Person honouring: Hilda Symes

Relationship to maker: Nana

Hilda Amy Rushin was born in Manaia on 30 June 1915, as was her twin sister Vera. She spent all her teenage years on the farm on Rama Road, Manaia, which her parents owned. 

Hilda married and had five children. When the Rama Road farm was sold, Hilda and her husband Peter moved to a farm in Stratford. They retired from there and bought a house on Fenton Street in Stratford, where Hilda worked at McKenzies for a number of years. 

She was a great knitter and loved her fowls. 

My Nana Hilda had a fantastic flower garden, every time you visited her she had made the garden just a little bit bigger. I can remember picking flowers the morning of our calf and show day at school. I won many certificates for flower pieces I had made from Nana’s garden. This is why there are so many flowers on my panel. Her love of chickens is shown by the feather flowers.

Nana always had a tin of buttons and loved knitting jerseys for us. They were cuddly and warm and smelt like Nana. The white lace at the top of my panel is from my wedding dress and is there to represent Mount Taranaki, which Nana lived under all her life.

She died on 7 June 2000, aged 85 years.

Panel materials: Feathers, fabric, buttons, thread, wool, I have a fantastic craft room so all my materials were found at home.