Sheila Margaret Clyne

   Cause of her death was pneumonia/lymphatic leukaemia.

  General Notes:

By Dick (Richard Arthur) Phillips, her loving husband.

Sheila spent most of her childhood roaming around the bush at Medlow Bath. Her main interests were the native plants and animals; she knew every tadpole hole in the area. When she found anything of interest to her, she took it to her friend, Melbourne Ward, who had a natural history museum at the Hydro Majestic Hotel. He allowed her unlimited access to his collection and library. If Sheila had had the opportunity of a higher education, she could have achieved anything she desired in the fields of botany and horticulture. During the school holidays she worked at the Paris cafe in Katoomba. She proved to be an excellent worker and was paid adult wages. After leaving school she worked in the milk bar at Greenwell's pharmacy. Later she worked with her mother at David Jones clothing factory. She worked at the Paris Cafe once again whilst waiting to come up to New Guinea.

In Lae, Sheila worked at the theatre milk bar and later ran the school tuck shop. She did this so well that the staff of the District Office bought their lunches there. She is a wonderful gardener, and has an instinctive knowledge of plants. I am sure that she could plant a dead stick and it would burst into flower. At the Lae show she won first prize for double hibiscus, was highly commended for gerberas, and won third prize for balsams. Her balsams were the best in the show, but she presented them as cut flowers instead of the complete plant. Sheila ran the Brownie pack whilst we were in Lae, and as with everything else she did, she made an excellent job of it. When the Lumme family were in trouble, with Hope Lumme being desperately ill, Sheila took their three girls into our home and cared for them for some months; she is always taking someone or other under her wing, and is greatly admired and loved by all who know her.

After we returned from New Guinea she worked at a nursing home in Lakemba. She did not like the way the place was run, and moved to a nursing home at Padstow. This home closed for renovations and she obtained a position at the St George nursing home. It proved to be too difficult to get to and she applied for and got a job at "Del Robyn" wedding reception centre. Sheila worked hard at all these jobs but still managed to provide a wonderful home for her family. I love her with all my heart. The one character trait I most admire about her is her enormous courage when faced with cancer. She did not indulge in the "why me" syndrome but adopted the attitude of "why not me?" Once she was diagnosed she was put on oral chemotherapy. This lasted about three years, and then she had to endure intravenous doses. Chemotherapy damages each vein with its use, and a new vein has to be found each time. Throughout the period of her illness she underwent sixty-eight doses of this poison, so most of her veins were weakened. When the medical staff were trying to insert a catheter to connect to the drip they would often have two or three attempts to do so. Sheila never complained and was always cheerful. I often said that Ned Kelly would have tipped his hat to her.

After 14 years with Lymphoma, my darling and I discussed the horrible treatment with chemotherapy and the awful fact that it was no longer giving her any worthwhile relief from her illness. We decided she would stop all medication in this form. Even though Sheila knew that her time would be short she wished for each of us to live a happy, normal life in the time we had left with each other. I was instructed firmly that I was not to act "po-faced", as she called it. I did my best to carry out these orders. During her final few weeks, she wrote in one of her crossword books, "All good things come from love." These words summed up her whole attitude to life. My dearest darling finally lost her battle on the 4th day of March 2000. May God hold her in the palm of his hand.

Physical Description: Height, 5' 3.5" (1.62cm); Eyes hazel; Hair brown. Dimples in both cheeks.

Note by Wendy Ellen-Mae Phillips, Sheila's eldest daughter:

Dad is right about Mum making a wonderful home for us. I especially remember the magic Christmases she created - she imbued all her children with a love of Christmas and its message of peace and good will. It's hard to feel the same about it without her, but we owe it to her to try. Re the physical description above, I remember her eyes as being bluest blue, not hazel, like the depths of the ocean on a fine summer day or the blue of the Blue Mountains themselves. She had the sweetest smile you could ever imagine.

Below is a poem I wrote for her, started on the day of her death as we drove down from Brisbane overnight to be with her, and finished in time to read aloud at her Requiem Mass.

Go to sleep, my sweet Sheila, say goodbye
To the pain you have suffered this long while,
And know the memory of your lovely smile
Will live on in our hearts and give the lie
To thoughts that you are gone. How could that be,
When everyone who knows you knows that they
Have met a soul so brave, so true, we pray
To be more like you; and your memory
Will be part of our lives, for we have grown
In trying. As "To thine own self be true"
Is what you've taught us, likewise you have shown
Us that as friend, wife, mother, darling, you
Have been the best. Loyal, honest, pure of mind.
You taught us love - or to at least be kind.

Your loving daughter, Wendy
4/3/2000
. ⁶

Sheila as a baby                       Sheila in Lae with Wendy, Diane and Leonie                Sheila & Dick  25th wedding anniversary

  Medical Notes:

1976: Rachael Forster Hospital, hysterectomy
September 1986: Canterbury Hospital, Dr B.T. Smith, biopsy of lump on neck.
Diagnosis: Lymphatic Leukaemia

  Some facts about her life:

• Religion: baptised Roman Catholic.

• Education: Intermediate Certificate at the R C Convent Blackheath New South Wales.

• Occupation: Seamstress at David Jones, Katoomba New South Wales upon leaving school. Later she worked at the lae Theatre Milk bar, ran the canteen at Lae Primary School, then worked as a nursing home attendant and caterer's assistant in Sydney.

• Cremation, 7 Mar 2000, Pine Grove Memorial Gardens. ⁷ Sheila's ashes were scattered in the Camellia garden at Pine Grove near her mother, Lucy, and a memorial plaque placed in the garden.

Sheila married Richard Arthur Phillips, son of Richard Joseph Phillips and Ellen Ruth Braithwaite, on 31 Jul 1948 in Registrar General's Office, Katoomba, New South Wales.^{1 2} (Richard Arthur Phillips was born on 3 Feb 1928 in Dulwich Hill, New South Wales, Australia ⁸ and was christened on 16 Feb 1928 in St Thomas, Lewisham, New South Wales ⁹.)