Elizabeth Mary (Beth) Davies

  General Notes:

source: & Ken Shiels [shiel_genealogy@austarnet.com.au] who notes:
More About ELIZABETH DAVIES:
Cemetery Section: Ashes Scattered
Cremated: Woronora Crematorium, 121 Linden St., Sutherland, New South Wales
Funeral Service: Uniting Church, Rockdale, New South Wales
Occupation: Deaconess and Nurse

  Noted events in her life were:

• Occupation: Deaconess / Nurse.

• note. Eulogy for Elizabeth Mary Davies
22^nd Sept 1922 - 24^th Mar 2009
Service at Rockdale Uniting Church 27^th Mar 2009

On behalf of the family, thank for coming and joining us in giving thanks to God for Beth; it's my privilege to say a few words about Beth. Elizabeth Mary Davies (Beth) was born on 27 Sept 1922 at Arncliffe, where she grew up.
Her childhood at the family home Thurellar with her parents George Arthur and Margaret Helen and her brothers Arthur and Colin was by all accounts a happy one, much of it revolving around the activities and the friendships formed at the Arncliffe Methodist church. That congregation, later meeting at Arncliffe West, and then the congregation here at Rockdale, served as her spiritual home for much of her life.
Beth went to school at Arncliife West, Bexley then St George Girls. She came from a musical home and at an early age learned to play the piano and organ. She told of how the three kids loved to inflict 'concerts' on their parents, but there must have been some real talent there, because I know of one occasion when she played the grand piano at the Town Hall, while my father Arthur played the violin and little Colin played the banjo [a Christian Endeavour rally].
Beth loved the hymns of Charles Wesley and others of the Methodist tradition. She continued to use her musical gifts in playing the organ in church, particularly here at Rockdale until recent years, and even played for the chapel service at Bruce Sharp Lodge until fairly lately.
After leaving school, one of Beth's early jobs was at the Efco factory in Arncliffe, where she earned the princely sum of 1 pound a week. Beth's heart was set on nursing, and she did midwifery training at Royal Hospital for Women (Paddington) (1944-45), then General Nursing at Mooroopna (Vic) (1946-48). Then Tresillian nursing (Willoughby, 1949?).
Beth was always interested in Christian missions and studied at Sydney Bible Training Inst Strathfield [details of this are hazy]. When the opportunity presented itself in 1950 to go to Fiji to work as a tutor sister with the Methodist Mission at the Ba hospital near Lautoka, she accepted the challenge of moving away from family and friends as a young single woman, seeing the need to provide good training to the young Indian nurses there. She had a great love of the people of Fiji, particularly the Indian community with whom she worked most closely. Later in her first period in Fiji, Beth became a district sister, doing pastoral work rather than nursing training.
Then in 1959, when her parents were becoming frail, Beth came home to Arncliffe to look after them. For a while she was able to combine this with deaconess work at Glebe, but caring for her mother particularly, who suffered a crippling stroke, and whose hearing was also deteriorating proved to be a full-time job. This she did with great devotion and without complaint, though it wasn't an easy task. The family owes a great debt of gratitude for what Beth did in those years.
Beth used what spare moments she had at that time to deepen her theological knowledge, studying privately for a Diploma in Div (MCD, 1969). She put this learning to good use in her regular preaching commitments, which continued until just a few years ago.
After the death of her parents in 1970 and 1976, Beth decided to go back to her beloved Fiji in 1977, again as a district sister, and served in this role for a further eight years or so in churches at Nausori, Labasa and Samabula (Suva). [I have circular letters of her time at these places].
Beth was always generous, always thinking of others, always frugal in her own habits. It was difficult to persuade her to spend money on herself, though she did enjoy the trip she took to India at the end of her first period in Fiji and a later trip to Israel, Egypt and UK. Her retirement years in Bexley, then Rockdale, continued to be productive, as she served in a variety of roles in he church and more widely, keeping in touch with her many friends, and enjoying family occasions.
Over the last couple of years we saw her health decline and she wasn't always able to find the words to express what she wanted to say, but, as the staff at Bruce Sharpe have commented, she was always cheerful, even when her quality of life was clearly declining. She said it all with a smile and a nod, a 'thank you' and a 'good' even if these weren't always quite the most appropriate words.
In going through her papers, one of the last pieces of coherent writing I came across was this written in Nov 2006. "Our minister asked me a while ago if I'm afraid of the future. My reply was "To see our Lord Jesus face to face and love him as I ought will be good. The scary part is in between! Yet with assurance that God is love beyond all expectation I leave the intervening time to him and 'praise him for all that is past and trust him for all that's to come.'"
It was in that spirit of expectant hope that she increasingly looked forward to the end of her earthly pilgrimage and even within the last month or so was able to express something of her longing to be with her Lord.
We have that confidence that Beth is now enjoying life to the full - not because she was a missionary and did a great deal of good for a great many others, but because her confidence was in a God who is good and whose love isn't bounded by our limited horizons.

(John Davies)