Mrs Carruthers, who started the Middlemarch singles ball in a bid to find wives for local bachelors, finished in October.
During her 26 years she worked as district nurse, and Plunket nurse.
She retired from Plunket nursing a couple of years ago, when she started a part-time position at Macraes gold mine.
When the mine offered her an extra day's work, she accepted and could no longer balance the role with district nursing.
She drives to the mine four days a week from her home near Middlemarch.
Being the mine's health nurse was a ''cool job'', and quite different from district nursing. Both were satisfying in their own way.
The health and safety aspect of the mine was a good fit with her postgraduate study.
She did miss community contact.
''I guess it's just being with people in their own home, and helping them to stay in their own homes for as long as they possibly can.
''Without some interventions people do have to go into hospitals or rest-homes if they don't have that support in their homes.''
Mrs Carruthers is reluctant to take the credit for the singles ball, which has been held every second year since 2001.
She says she has not been involved for a long time, and many people have contributed.
She admits it was her idea though. She had to identify the main health need in her community as part of postgraduate study.
''And it was that we didn't have enough nurses up here.
''So it was just a bit of a joke. I said: `We've got all these bachelors. If we married some of them off to a nurse, we'd actually solve lots of problems'.''
While the ball has been a huge success, she acknowledges the community ''didn't get any nurses out of it''.
