The gift in Amanda's Will reflects her life of service

Amanda is a woman who has everything she needs, and absolutely no more.

Living alone in a small home, her kitchen has just one of each size of plate, pot and pan, and her airing cupboard holds just a couple of towels and sheets.

“I am just an ordinary woman who has worked hard, and these few things are all I need.”

Amanda has always lived in a simple and generous manner, guided for over fifty years by the Franciscan principles of life, which are based on the teachings and example of St Francis of Assisi, including serving others, building community and seeking peace and justice.

She has therefore always been acutely aware that there are many people in the world who have little or nothing, or are otherwise suffering, and has dedicated her life to helping them.

“I just want to lift people up a bit,” she says, holding her thumb and forefinger a few centimeters apart to show how far, “not all the way up, just so they’re better than they’d otherwise would be, and can move forward with their lives”.

“When I was young, we weren’t well off. I couldn’t go to university, not many girls did, you could be a teacher or a nurse, I wanted to be a priest, landed up being a nurse and midwife.”

After initially working in health in Dunedin and Hamilton in the mid-1960s, Amanda went on to spend time on an Aboriginal reserve near Alice Springs in Australia, and then worked in India for several years, helping a Christian mission to save the sight of the poorest people with cataract surgery.

An academic career followed, including studying under the famous (and at times controversial) theologian Sir Lloyd Geering. After two decades lecturing in psycho-social health at Massey University in Wellington, as well as working at the Mary Potter Hospice there, she moved north to retire.

This presented a particular challenge for this frugal woman. Selling her waterfront home of 27 years in Eastbourne, where she had raised her foster children, and then moving to a new and smaller home in Katikati, meant she had some capital left over.

“It hit me that I had a responsibility, to be the steward of this money, for the greater good, I couldn’t just spend it.”

“After all, you can only sleep in one bed, and you can only eat one meal at a time!”

Just before shifting north Amanda was ordained as an Anglican priest, finally realising her long-held aspiration. Then in the mid-00s, she ‘moved home’ to Hamilton to work with Bishop David Moxon on helping retired and sick clergy and their widows. Once here, she served as a chaplain at the old Waikato hospice before the new one was built, where she supported many people at the end of their lives.

Then a decade ago Amanda was reviewing her Will and was introduced to community foundations and our philanthropic endowment model through a Katikati connection who was familiar with the Acorn Foundation in Tauranga.

Being in Hamilton, she was pleased to be introduced to Momentum Waikato, so became one of the first people to make a bequest to the then-new local community foundation.

Amanda’s bequest will grant out the investment income generated by her estate in four ways – helping girls who can’t otherwise afford to go to University; the Christian Blind Mission in India where she worked in her younger days; organisations supporting the homeless here in Aotearoa; and local animal welfare organisations, which she sees as ultimately being about helping people.

As such, it will be a well-balanced mix of ongoing charitable giving, lifting up individuals, and meeting wider needs, both here and afar.

Looking back now at the decade of her relationship with Momentum Waikato, Amanda is confident she made the right call.

“I recommend Momentum Waikato to my friends and neighbours, just in conversation, not proselytising. I say they’re honest, and leaving something to them is how you should do it.

“I tell people ‘my family don’t need anything from me; I’m giving what I’ve got to charity’.

“But instead of giving away a blob of money, I want the investment income it earns to be used constructively, for the good of people, into the future.”

For Amanda, a bequest in her Will to Momentum Waikato ensures that her estate will create a legacy of perpetual generosity towards those who really need it, realising the values she has lived by throughout her life, forever.

Find out more about Momentum Waikato, charitable bequests and our free online Will Writing service.