Mo | Kaikōura, Canterbury

“I’m a mother. I’ve got seven children, six boys, one girl. Career-wise it leads me up to where I am today in the job and role I am today, I’ve just worked jobs that fitted in and around the children and family, in retail.

Worked in retail right up until earthquake time when we had a major change of lifestyle. I changed roles. With our store closing down in town, I joined the Kaikōura Hospital under the earthquake funding they had there, as an earthquake navigator support role. Then that led me into the role I’m doing now which is a community support role. So I’m 46 and now I’m back studying, which I never thought I’d ever do, and doing papers on mental health.

I’m a people-person. I like to be surrounded by people and stories and I like to help them. Being in retail in a small town, working in the supermarkets, you get to build up a connection with people, and you get to know who they are. Not just who they are, but who their families are, as well, and I guess that’s moulded me into the person I am today.

There’s this one lady, I was working one of my jobs in the dairy in town, it was just me being me, talking, offering advice, being someone someone could offload to, and I remember this lady years later, she came back to me and she told me that she remembers that day, and she said something along the lines of me listening to her and being supportive of her helped her in the dark place that she was in at that time, which I never realised she was. I guess that’s when I realised, I can connect with people really well. You hear stories of, if it wasn’t for you listening to me that day, who knows where I would have ended up. I will never forget that story.

I guess I don’t like to see people down and out. If they’re winning in life, that’s positive stuff. I like all that. That’s what gets me going.  I don’t know where it comes from. Dad, I guess.

So what I’m doing now is I’m working as a mental health community support worker, and I’m doing a paper on mental health and addiction. It’s a bit scary, 46 going back to writing essays and stuff, and thinking, geez. I didn’t pass School Cert, at the time when I was at school. I went swimming instead of doing my exams, because that was more fun.”