Gwynneth Catherine "Bet" BARKER [678]

  General Notes:

Bet did not marry, she was a selfless and much loved sister & aunt.

Reminiscences on Bet by Christine Cole-Catley.
Next was Bet, (Gwyneth Catherine, or Buffy as we first called her), who was a good pianist. She was on her way to England to study as a concert pianist when she became ill in Cape Town, and had to return to NZ. Sun stroke, it was called, but her kidneys were affected and thereafter she was always 'delicate'. Another absolutely warm-hearted woman, who adored us children, Bet would play (the Barkers had an excellent piano) hour after hour, and we'd all sing.
Kindness, softness, always quietly putting others before herself, that was Bet. Possibly my very earliest memory is of Bet standing in the doorway and singing to wake me in the morning: "Eena Christina, queen of the oats!" Just nine notes of a little tune specially for me, it was, and about my liking for her oatmeal porridge. At this very early time, too, I see myself with my finger tracing the outline of gum nuts on a pattern of eucalyptus trees on Alice's (grandmother) pink eiderdown as I snuggle into her bed; always a treat to stay with them.
Bet's ill health put paid to her intended career. Once she had recovered sufficiently she devoted herself to looking after her parents, right through until their deaths. During this time she looked for consolation in the Anglican Church, particularly in an organisation called Toc H, which Margot later was attracted to, too.
In the 1940s, after Alice and Tom had died, Bet very bravely went out into the world and became a clerk in the public service. She was shy and inexperienced in the ways of the world. Eina, indeed all of us, looked on her so tenderly as she made herself read the racing pages and even come with us on occasion to the races, so that she wouldn't be totally excluded at tea times in the public service when the talk was horses and racing. We children loved her dearly.
2005

Reminiscences on the Bet by Judith McKenzie.
Aunt Bet (Gwynneth Catherine) looked after us all, cooking, cleaning, going to the library for books for everyone, and after our evening meal, playing the piano for her family audience. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin - always finishing with a request for the day. Her favourite was Chopin, much played from memory, but she had a large stack of scores on the black upright piano. If any of the audience dozed off, she would play the theme from Haydn's Surprise Symphony, the sudden loud chord jolting a grandparent awake again.
Her affection and kindnesses were infinite. "Barkis is willing" she would say, her knowledge of Dickens being considerable, as she set off on yet another chore.
She took me into Wellington once a week to the Ear Specialist where I had my ears dressed. Then she took me to a film in the early afternoon. My memories are of handsome air force pilots, soldiers or sailors and their beautiful women; planes being shot down and ships sinking. I was almost totally deaf so the stories passed over my head but I would look at Bet's rapt face and know not to ask. The weekly film must have been her one escape from a routine of caring.
Bet was a talented pianist whose poor health prevented a professional career. She was tall, pretty and shy and became the spinster aunt who devoted herself to her elderly parents. After their deaths, she became a shorthand typist in a Government Department in Wellington. She lived in a small room during the week and spent the weekends with Doris at Raumati Beach. I loved her dearly.
To her I owe my interest in classical music and my ability to read widely and quickly. She attended concerts when she could.
I suspect that she was lonely and in her last years with sight and memory failing dependent on older sister Dor for everything.
2005

  Other Records

1. Gwynneth (Bet) Barker: Images from her life.
Bet aged 3; in her youth; with her siblings Marjorie right & Beryl left; later in life and with her great niece Sarah Cole.