As a 9-year-old, Catherine Lee posed as Peter Pan’s dear friend Wendy Darling for the J.M. Barrie-inspired sculpture, Wendy and her Attendants (also referred to as The Darling Children Learning to Fly).
Now the 68-year-old British woman is excitedly preparing to visit New Zealand for the first time this month, her itinerary including a trip to the Dunedin Botanic Garden on January 31, when she will come face to face with a bronze likeness of her younger self.
Commissioned by the Dunedin Botanic Garden and created by British sculptor Sir Cecil Thomas OBE in 1967, it followed the installation of another Sir Cecil sculpture, Peter Pan, nearby in 1963.
Both artworks were a result of a donation by Green Island resident Harold Richmond.
Ms Lee used to pose for Cecil Thomas in his studio at Dora House, in South Kensington, London, where she was asked to balance somewhat precariously on a stepladder to give the illusion of flight.
Ms Lee also remembered having tea with the sculptor and his wife, Dora, in whose memory the house is named.
For a 9-year-old, this was an "incredibly exciting experience", which came about when her father answered a small advertisement posted in the window of a local shop.
"I was the right age and had a long plait and somewhat cherubic face, which suited the character well.
"I would go to the studio every Wednesday afternoon after school and position myself diagonally and rather uncomfortably on a stepladder, simulating Wendy in flight.
"I never met the two boys who modelled Wendy’s brothers, Michael and John at my side in the statue, or the dog Nana looking up as her charges took flight, but the whole came together very successfully."
Ms Lee said Sir Cecil would sometimes take her around the garden of Dora House and show her other works in progress, including a half-finished bust of Queen Elizabeth 2.
"He told me I was even more important than her — as my statue was taking precedence.
Ms Lee has lived most of her life in London, apart from brief stints in Oxford, where she went to university (she studied English language and literature), in Lewes (Sussex) and in Florence, Italy, where she was involved in running a small opera company and several summer music festivals.
She changed career on return from Italy and joined the British Civil Service where she worked mainly on justice and constitutional policies.
She rose to become the director-general in charge of policy at the Ministry of Justice. She was awarded a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2012 for services to justice, and received the medal from the then Prince of Wales, now King Charles III.
Ms Lee said she could not wait to visit New Zealand, where her itinerary will include spending two days in Dunedin.
"Of course, I will be making a pilgrimage to see the statue.
"I am very much looking forward to seeing the statue in the setting of the beautiful Dunedin Botanic Garden. It has been a lifetime dream."
— The Dunedin Botanic Garden is planning to host a public talk featuring Catherine Lee and others on February 1. More details will be shared on the garden’s Facebook page.
— Allied Media
