Our People: Raewyn Smith the 'checkout chick'

Raewyn Smith is not your ordinary checkout chick. Photo / Stephen Parker

Checking in on the supermarket scanner with a passion for people, an eye for art

"This girl's a checkout chick."

These are exactly the sort of words that send Our People's senses into overdrive, we simply have to discover who and what lies behind them.

The "who" is Raewyn Smith and the "what" is a no-holds-barred story she shares with remarkable candour.

Like us all, the cards she's been dealt in life have been a mixed hand, in Raewyn's case the joker in the pack is the one she calls "this girl", it's the endearingly abstract way she tends to refer to herself.

The initial card "this girl" lays on the table reveals a child born without a bladder, her early years were spent in an out of hospital.

"Mr Hackett [Rotorua surgeon] did a brilliant job building me one, I've never had any problems in that department since."

While on the subject of hospitals there's much hilarity as she recalls how it took four adults to pin her down when she rebelled against a needle while being prepped for a childhood tonsillectomy.

"By then I hated needles, I woke up still fighting, haemorrhaged, they put a drip in, I yanked it out, in my late teens the tip came out of my arm, I hadn't a clue it was there."

Hospital stays interrupted Raewyn's Ngongotahā primary years.

"I was never really good at anything until I did a pencil sketch and the art teacher raved, suddenly everyone wanted to know me."

Via Kaitao Intermediate, she took her paints and pencils to Western Heights High but those were the days of streaming and there wasn't a stream for the artistically inclined.

"They put me in academic, 'this girl' rebelled, she's always been a bit of a battler going in boots and all." Raewyn convinced her mother, Dorothy Pope, to talk to the principal. "Suddenly there was an art stream."

Before she'd technically left school "this girl" became a married woman.

"I got pregnant, we married in November, school didn't finish until December."

Two children later Raewyn had her first taste of the working world "folding rates at the council".

"I was 24 and wanted a car, my girlfriend taught me to drive, she said it was the scariest thing ever."

When her first marriage fell apart she swapped the council for part-time jobs.

"I was juggling about eight, my mum was tea lady at Waiariki [Polytech] I'd fill in for her. That staffroom was a story in itself, you had these intelligent people who did the dumbest things. One big cheese walked into the phone booth instead of out the door, after that we called him Clark Kent."

Raewyn moved to the poly's stationery shop then its management school's equivalent.

Art continued to fascinate her. "This girl bluffed her way into a screen printing job in Eruera St, said she was experienced but the only art she'd done was at school."

Screen printing became Raewyn's life for the next 30 years. She opened her own business, later going into partnership with others, renaming the operation Stitch & Print.

Along the way she'd remarried and produced a third child; when that partnership soured she was a solo mum with a house to sell "for the bank".

"A year went by without a single offer but the real estate agent and I bonded, we drank a lot of wine, which goes to show you can make friends out of adversity."

The next card Raewyn draws from her pack flashes "cancer", she's experienced its insidious ways twice over as it wrapped its tentacles around both parents.

"Dad [Laurie Pope] was in remission from bowel cancer when Mum was diagnosed with it in her pancreas. That lady showed me how brave someone can be, she said to the surgeon 'I want it straight, how long have I got?' He said 'three to six months, I can't lie, chances are chemo won't prolong your life'. Yellow as a buttercup, she sat up and said 'I've got a lot of living to do . . . one more birthday, one more Christmas, one more anniversary. After 57 years together she and Dad renewed their vows."

Mother and daughter visited the Coffin Club where the terminally ill woman chose a casket. "We wallpapered the sides, I painted the lid with butterflies, she loved them, helped when she could."

Dorothy Pope outlived the predictions of her estimated demise by several months.

"Before she died Dad's bowel cancer returned, he tried chemo, was very ill. I left the business to care for him.

"On his last day my daughter cleaned his teeth telling him he had to have fresh breath to kiss Nana - that was lovely."

Losing her parents within 10 months predictably sent her personal tectonic plates askew.

"This girl became a little bit broken, she took two years off, visited Italy, her life's dream."

She took her parents' passports with her "so they could see the world too".

In Italy Raewyn was in her element, Da Vinci's The Last Supper captivated her. "I was in tears, it was so moving."

The Shroud of Turin was on display when she visited. "It's not always there, it's always fascinated me, I'm not a Catholic, just into history." More tears were shed in Florence's Uffizi Gallery, the Louvre.

"There's a quote I live by: 'Art is the place where you lose yourself and find yourself at the same time', it certainly resonates with me."

She returned home in 2015. "Rejuvenated in body and spirit this girl came together with a beautiful man. He had a caravan opposite my parents' at Tirohanga, we'd had a good friendship, when I came back we realised we were meant to be together."

One card Raewyn does play close to her chest is this man's identity.

"I'll just say what he says, that he's a white boy from the Ford Block, being with him my life is charmed."

Mr no-name has built her an artist's "dream studio" in the garden of their Ngongotahā home.

"When this girl's not there she's riding pillion on his Harley [Davidson]."

"He encouraged me to go back to work, I was a bit limited because of the arthritis screen printing's given me. It takes lots of pounds per square inch to push paint through screens into fabric."

Raewyn had just completed a WINZ work-ready course when Countdown advertised for staff at its new Fairy Springs Rd supermarket.

"This girl brushed herself up, pulled a CV together. I had management skills, customer service experience, I love people, the qualifications you need to be a checkout chick.

"It's brought me out of my shell, taught me how to communicate with people, people come in angry with the world and end up under this girl's spell, she has an infectious smile to give and she makes sure they catch it."

RAEWYN SMITH (NEE POPE)
Born: Wellington, 1960
Education: Ngongotaha Primary, Kaitao Intermediate, Western Heights High
Family: Partner, two daughters (Perth, Rotorua), son (Rotorua), one granddaughter, two grandsons.
Interests: Family, art (water colours, sketching, occasional oils), the beach, bike riding "We have wonderful family days on our beautiful tracks or I'm out with my man on his Harley." Travel, cooking "This winter's been all about soups, tweaking them."
On her life: "It's been full of love."
On Rotorua: "The most magical place in the North Island for an artist."
Personal philosophy: "It doesn't take much to smile, share it."