A nurse at the Oamaru division of Healthcare NZ for about seven years, she said goodbye to her colleagues for the final time in a work setting on Wednesday, ending a career that spanned 55 years. She was given an appropriate send-off with a nurse’s hat cake, while her colleagues dressed in cat-themed attire — a nod to Mrs McLeod’s love for felines.
After leaving school in 1963, she got her first nursing job at Southland Hospital, aged 17.
Mrs McLeod (72) said it was not a difficult decision to enter the profession given its family links.
"I guess it was because my mother was a nurse ... and it was sort of a toss-up between teaching and nursing in those days. There was not many choices: you were either a nurse, a teacher, and office worker or a hairdresser.
"For me it was nursing because a lot of my friends were going nursing and I wanted to work in a people environment. I didn’t want to work in an office or be a hairdresser."
As well as Invercargill and later Auckland, she worked extensively overseas in the UK, Canada and Europe.
In addition to nursing she ran rest-homes for several years, was the needs assessment manager for all of Southland, took charge of midwifery services, was the Alzheimer’s Society field officer and ran a dementia unit and taught the national certificate to care workers.
After 25 years of midwifery she became boarding director of Southland Girls’ High School for six years.
Looking back on her career, Mrs McLeod said it had been an "absolute privilege" to work with people from all works of life across the "economic strata".
With her career now behind her, she was not sure what she would focus her energy on.
"I’m quite apprehensive. I’m thinking about what I’m going to do with my retirement because I have no real hobbies. I did so much shiftwork and when you’re doing shiftwork a lot of your life, you just can’t commit to things."
However, she did look forward to travelling with husband Neil in their motorhome.
