"She said to me: ‘You must be a hairdresser,’" Mrs McKay (nee Blair) recalled this week.
And that was that.
"I never wanted to do anything else."
Mrs McKay cut and styled hair in Oamaru for 54 years, including 19 years as Rendell on Reed’s first and only resident hairdresser, before the rest-home closed this week.
In 1963, Mrs McKay attended Christchurch’s Litchfield St hairdressing college as a 16-year-old, she then returned to Oamaru to apprentice under Marion McLennan at Salon Marianne.
Her first salon, Salon DeLuxe, opened four years later, but did not survive the North Otago Farmers’ Co-operative Association’s three-storey department store fire on November 15, 1969.
Mrs McKay’s resolve, however, survived and after the Saturday afternoon fire, Mrs McKay was back at work on Monday in a salon owned by local legend and "real wee darling" Billie Mudge.
"Everything was gone, but she said, ‘Use my salon on Monday morning, use my gear’, which I did."
A few weeks later she was back in her own salon, this time in the Stringer & Co. building, before moving again to the rebuilt North Otago Farmers building once it was completed.
After they started a family, the 1980s economic downturn forced Mrs McKay and her husband Ian to walk off their Totara sheep and cropping farm with only their "children, clothes and furniture".
Once her children were more independent, she started Heads of Eden in Eden St.
That was where Glenys Rendell found her and convinced her to become the resident hairdresser at the rest-home. She worked a half-day once a week for nine years, before moving there full-time to open Diana’s at Rendell.
Mrs McKay cut the hair of residents, some of whom were "going through another childhood". She gave people haircuts knowing it would be their last.
She would make appointments with some who would not even remember what day it was, but scheduling the appointment "had to be their idea".
She was a counsellor to many and a social visit for many others.
"It would be a highlight, getting their hair done," Mrs McKay said.
"I’ve loved my work."
