Family link commemorated in quilts
Marion Manning makes quilts, hundreds of them, and this week she flew from Queensland to present a dozen to a Raglan institution
A Queensland woman has repaid an 80-year-old family debt to a Raglan institution by travelling to the seaside town to present 12 quilts she made in the company of her supervisor – a ginger cat.
Marion Manning grew up in Te Awamutu and trained as a milliner at Betty White Millinery in the old Pollock and Milne Plaza (a specialist fabric shop) in Hamilton in the late 1960s.
Now based in Brisbane, Manning followed up on old family photographs to track a family association with the DV Bryant Retreat.
The retreat is operated by the Hamilton-based Bryant Trust.
“My mother’s sister was a patient at Bryant Home for Children in 1932. She was sent there to recuperate and turned 92 this year.
“As well, my great aunt, Dorothy Smith, was a matron of the home in 1931.”
Manager of the Retreat Robyn Riddle said Manning knocked on the door some months ago and introduced herself and her family’s connection to the DV Bryant Trust’s charitable work in Raglan.
At a morning tea held to celebrate the gifts this week, Riddle noted quilts were suggestive of the warmth and dignity the Retreat provided to women.
“A quilt seems to be a symbol for the many things we value at the Retreat – it is made up of many different kinds and colours of fabric – a bit like the women who come here – each is different but somehow they all fit together and complement one another.”
Manning has made hundreds of quilts down the years, most recently supervised on a daily basis by the neighbour’s ginger cat.
