A chance encounter with Susan Cade on a track in the Porirua hills is the lasting memory Kathy Knowles will treasure of her colleague.
Cade, a long-serving mental health nurse and an NZNO delegate, died suddenly in a freak boating accident while on a weekend trip in Kaikoura with 10 other people from the Nature Photography Society of New Zealand on Saturday, September 10.
Maritime NZ is investigating the accident in which an eight-metre boat suddenly capsized, resulting in the death of five passengers.
Cade’s brother Phil Cade said the family believed it was likely the charter boat struck a whale.
Cade’s death has been devastating for her many colleagues.
Knowles worked with Cade at Te Whare Ra Uta, the inpatient older person’s mental health unit in Kenepuru, Porirua.
She said Cade looked to be in her element on the track, and was “not the Sue I knew from work”.
” . . .instead [she had] wild hair, hiking boots, a bushman’s hat slung over her backpack and an ear-to-ear grin.”
Knowles told her she was the “quintessential energizer bunny”, to which Cade “threw her head back and laughed”.
She told Kaitiaki Cade was an incredibly dedicated and meticulous nurse, often staying for long periods after her shift finished to complete patient notes or update TrendCare.
“Her work stories were quite a lot more interesting than ours, right up to the last [time they saw her], often with humour.”
The union activist
Cade was driven to advocate for colleagues as a NZNO delegate over decades, organiser Jo Coffey said.
“She was very community minded, very patient, kind, always took the time to listen to other people’s concerns and to escalate them and try and get results for all their problems and issues.
“She knew [NZNO] was the pathway to get better terms and conditions and to get people’s issues heard.”
Coffey credits her start on an NZNO career path to Cade, who got Coffey involved in distributing union news to members.
Knowles told her she was the “quientessential energizer bunny”, to which Cade “threw her head back and laughed”.
” . . . that was Sue’s way of growing the union delegates, she would drop off different kits and packs and taught me how to be a delegate – she was very much an activist like that.”
Coffey said Cade encouraged her colleagues to have a good work-life balance and loved sharing stories about her out-of-work passions including dancing, photography and tramping.
“If she asked you what have you been up to last weekend, and you said you hadn’t done anything, she would look at you mortified, and she’d look you up and down as if to say, get out there!”
Fellow Greater Wellington Regional Council member Ann Simmonds said Cade brought her love of detail, and her sense of fun, and passion for improving conditions and pay for nurses to her roles on the council.
“She wanted to make the reasons for going to council meetings and the reasons for participating in unionism visible to all nurses.”
A life-long commitment to nursing
Cade’s career started with a role at Palmerston North Hospital in 1977.
A decade later she began working in acute psychiatric care at Hutt Hospital, and remained a mental health nurse for the rest of her career, her brother Phil Cade said.
“She was always interested in helping people and looking after people. Right from an early age she always had pets, and my mum had been a nurse too.”
He wasn’t sure why his sister was drawn to mental health nursing but guessed it was because she loved talking to people.
“For the rest of my walk I felt inspired and so much lighter, her laughter resounding in my ears. This was Sue’s magic, this is how she touched people.”
“Her work stories were quite a lot more interesting than ours, right up to the last [time they saw her], often with humour.”
Phil Cade said his sister went above and beyond her professional duty to support patients, including buying food she knew they liked.
Colleagues also recalled Cade stocking the fridge with treats for the patients – including yoghurts, juice, jelly, marshmallows, fruits and ice-cream – to make food or medication more palatable.
Knowles said she would hold on to the memory of Cade in the Porirua hills.
“For the rest of my walk I felt inspired and so much lighter, her laughter resounding in my ears. This was Sue’s magic, this is how she touched people.”