FAIRY GODMOTHER

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 290, 5 September 1942, Page 5

FAIRY GODMOTHER

Knits Soldiers’ Comforts At

95 Years Of Age

For more than 18 months, Mrs._ Elizabeth Carey, Masterton, has played fairy godmother to the troops in New Zealand s largest inland camp, headquarters of the New Zealand Tank Brigade. _ Others play similar roles, but not in their 96th year. Week after week, despite her years, Mrs Carey has sent a parcel of knitted wear to the camp commandant lor dis. tribution, mittens, berets, balaclavas and the like, all her own handiwork. Hardly a week passes without the arrival at the camp of a parcel containing up to hait-a-d°Mrs.1 Carey buys all her own wool, and each article is turned out with meticulous skill. The mittens which, she knits are particularly popular, as they are made Full length with a slit across the palm, so that they can be used either as less gloves covering the whole hand, or as mittens, according to the work the user is doing. When it was learned in camp that Mrs, Carey had been presented with a sevenvolume edition of Gibbons Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, on her Jotli birthday, it was feared- that she might be distracted from her work for the troops. But the fears were groundless. It would take -more than seven monumental volumes of Gibbon to upset her equanimity and quiet sense of humour, and her unselfish contributions to the comfort ot the men in this camp have continued to arrive regularly for distribution to a widening circle’of appreciative recipients.