A current resident of Selwyn Village has been honoured by registered charity*, The Selwyn Foundation, which has named its new retirement living complex in her honour.
At the recent opening event for the prestigious new 57-unit Betty Pyatt apartment building at Selwyn Village, resident, Miss Betty Pyatt MBE, was the guest of honour, officially opening the building by cutting the ceremonial red ribbon and unveiling the brass plaque at the entrance to the new residence.
Betty is the former matron of Christ’s Hospital, the first hospital built at Selwyn Village during the period of growth and expansion which the village enjoyed in the 1960s and which provided care for generations of older Aucklanders for 50 years. She was appointed as matron in 1974 when she returned from Vanuatu, where she had worked with the Church of Melanesia for 25 years teaching and training nurses (she was awarded an MBE in 1969 for her work in Vanuatu).
After nursing at Christ’s for eleven years, Betty retired and lived in Mt Albert, attending St Luke’s Church where she was also part of the lay ministry team visiting parishioners. She moved to Selwyn Village as an independent living resident in 2003 and has continued to play an active part in the life of the village since then.
At the opening ceremony which was attended by many of the apartments’ new residents, Betty was joined by family members who had travelled from across New Zealand and Australia to share in the memorable occasion with her. Now 96 years old, she is pleased that Christ’s Hospital, which closed in 2014 after five decades of service, will be remembered for many years through the association with her name.
Betty said: “Maybe, in the future, someone will ask ‘Who is Betty Pyatt?’ and, hopefully, someone will answer ‘She was the Matron of Christ’s Hospital’. In this way, the work of Christ’s Hospital will not be forgotten”.
