‘Thank you is hardly saying enough’: Grieving family thanks Rotorua’s Supper Club generosity

James Hardisty, Molly George and their son, William, now aged nine, enjoying Skyline Rotorua in 2018 thanks to businesses donating to Supper Club.

Staying in a luxury retreat and being given the best Rotorua has to offer couldn’t have come at a better time for a Dunedin family.

Molly George and James Hardisty had just lost their precious nine-month-old daughter, Mae.

She was fit and healthy and died suddenly in her sleep.

Mae Hardisty was only nine months old when she died suddenly in her sleep.

Eleven months later and through the Ronald McDonald House Charities, they were invited to stay in Rotorua at a retreat on the shores of Lake Rotorua at Ngongotahā.

One of two retreats, the upkeep of the luxurious homes is possible thanks to the Supper Club annual fundraiser, being held for the 13th time tonight.

Supper Club is run by a team of volunteers led by Rob and Linley Parry, who own the three Rotorua McDonald’s franchises. Each year, they sell 50 tables of eight people - usually groups of friends - who dine at 50 different Rotorua hospitality venues that donate their food free of charge.

Before a live draw is done to decide where the tables are heading off to dinner, they attend drinks and an auction at Novotel Rotorua where donated items are sold under the hammer, with proceeds going to the grand total. Among the auction items tonight is an $18,000 Mediterranean cruise donated by helloworld Travel Rotorua and Oceania Cruises.

Rotorua Supper Club organisers and the crowd celebrate their grand total at last year's event. Photo / Andrew Warner

George told the Rotorua Daily Post this week Rotorua would never know how much their generosity in donating to the retreats meant to her and her husband, and their now-nine-year-old son, William.

Mae died in August 2017 and the family were given their retreat holiday in July 2018. George was pregnant with her now-four-year-old daughter Eadie.

“It was a really special time. It gave us the opportunity to do something positive and to focus on our son before another baby arrived. After being through something horrible, to go away somewhere and do something fun was just really nice.”

The family stayed a week and were surprised to find they were also given free or discounted vouchers to Rotorua’s top tourist attractions, with Skyline Rotorua, Te Puia and The Burried Village being among the highlights.

“It was such a rich experience. The retreat was such luxury. When you’re immersed in survival mode after a tragedy, people help with things like providing a meal or babysitting, but to be given a free luxury experience for a whole week was totally amazing. It was beyond anything we would ever plan for us to do ourselves.”

George wrote in the retreat’s visitor book and thanked those who were responsible.

“Our Mae was full of joy and packed as much as possible into every day of her short life. So we felt this trip was of her essence - we had fun, we laughed, we packed every day full of little adventures. Her spirit was all around us,” George wrote in the visitor’s book.

“Thank you is hardly saying enough.”