Former Kawerau mayor Lyn Hartley (left) with current mayor, her former deputy, Malcolm Campbell. Photo / Supplied
Former Kawerau mayor Lyn Hartley (left) with current mayor, her former deputy, Malcolm Campbell. Photo / Supplied
Former Kawerau mayor Lyn Hartley will be sadly missed but the legacy she leaves in her beloved town is a strong one, says current mayor Malcolm Campbell.
Hartley died on Thursday, aged 80, after a long battle with illness. Initially trained as a nurse, she spent six years as deputymayor and 15 years as mayor of Kawerau.
Campbell spent three years as Hartley's deputy before taking over as mayor when she stood down and said she was a woman with a wicked sense of humour who cared deeply about people and the community.
"She was also a celebrant so spent many, many years marrying people and farewelling those who had passed," he said.
"She was one of those people who could run a funeral and everybody was laughing at the end of it all. She got the best out of everything."
Former Kawerau mayor Lyn Hartley pictured in 1998. Photo / File
He said it was after losing her son to cancer that Hartley stood down from mayor and went back to nursing until she retired.
She was well respected within the Kawerau community and by all involved in local government in New Zealand.
"She had good connections and she will be sadly missed but she does leave a great legacy. She spent the last five or six years of her life in a pretty traumatic experience with dementia, which was quite sad.
"Everyone still talks about Lyn as being the mayor, everybody called her Lyn. She was part of the 1989 reform and her leadership kept us as the Kawerau District when the big amalgamations took place. We've been independent ever since."
Campbell said Hartley would be laid to rest with her son and husband at the Pongakawa cemetery on Saturday.
The family was planning to have a celebration of her life with the community once New Zealand moved out of alert level 4.
Delay of funerals 'heartbreaking' for grieving families
The Hartley family is one of many being forced to wait out the nationwide lockdown before they can farewell loved ones.
Tauranga's Hope Family Funeral Services funeral director Tony Hope said the experience could be traumatic for grieving families.
"It is a wait-and-see situation and that uncertainty can be quite traumatic," he said.
"I'm sure they understand what we're going through but emotionally the impact is quite significant.
"It really does break our hearts to see what families are going through when they can't say the goodbyes that they'd like to say."
Hope said there were "several services" planned during this lockdown that had been cancelled or postponed.
Hope Family Funeral Services funeral director Tony Hope. Photo / File
"We're just working with each individual family to work out what their wishes are and it varies. Some people are holding off until we know what's going to happen. We do have someone being buried on Saturday and if we're still in level 4 it will be live-streamed so the family who can't be there can still be part of it."
Legacy Funerals general manager Kiri Randall said they had 10 funerals planned for this week.
"At this stage we have conducted one, as per the rules we went to the cemetery and had a private burial," she said.
"The others are delayed until next week at this stage. We just keep in touch with the families every day so we can make some plans and make sure they're in good care.
"We've told them not to rush anything because we've realised from last time that if they rush or they don't have a chance to have the funeral it can really affect their grieving process."
Randall said all the families involved had been understanding.
"They've been amazing, absolutely amazing. We're very fortunate."
