20/08/2026
Trish.
This post is for Waiheke and all the people and customers who frequently asked how Mum was.
Most knew her as the “Trish” of Trish and Gordon Richards, but many also knew her as Kron (Chris Douglas, take a bow).
A weird name alright, but it stuck.
Trish and Gordy left the island 18 years ago, give or take, for an easier maintenance-free life wrapped in sociability and mateship at Pinesong Retirement Village in Titirangi (aka The Resort). After 33 years on Waiheke, they were very much a part of the island fabric (as too were Mum’s parents - Ida Beatrice and Aubrey Gerald, pioneering types who settled here in the 40’s I think).
Mum was a nurse, a general worker, a grocery retailer (they owned the IGA in Oneroa) and an English teacher at Waiheke High School sharing her passion for language with international students who just loved her to bits.
She was an articulate woman right to the end (as was her hope) - engaging, principled, beautifully mannered, honest to the core with a huge heart. She loved New Zealand and the All Blacks, had an insatiable interest in global current affairs, a sharp brain and that innate ability to strike up a conversation with anyone. She was generous, loving, but also much stronger than I ever knew.
In later years she lost her filter a bit, which drove me effing nuts, but she claimed her age had earned her the right to speak her mind (she detested coarse language by the way, dismissing it as lazy and told me often that if I kept it up she’d be coming back to haunt me).
But, her greatest love in life was being a Mum.
An unfailing cheerleader for her 3 kids (and about 500 beautiful grandchildren and great grandchildren). In our family, she outlasted them all at nearly 92. Good genetics we’d say.
She’s gone now. (Wednesday, 3.38pm)
All the stories of her generation, with her.
A rapscallion who kept her trademark sass.
And frankly, a bloody wonderful woman.
Thankyou to everyone who knew her.
X
