Kath Clune MSS features in a book by Dr Maggie Kirkman, titled Times of Our Lives: Celebrating Older Women. Dr Kirkman interviewed Kath a couple of times for the book, which aims to pose this challenge: to see old age as an opportunity to continue learning rather than a dreaded tragedy. Kath says, ‘It’s about making older women visible, the quiet achievers, with a chapter focussing on each of the 20 women highlighted.’
The book was released in March this year, with a chapter about Kath titled, ‘Adventure and Service’, which she thinks fits her ‘comfortably’. It focuses on her life before joining the MSS, and then her various ministries as MSS. It highlights a peak experience in Kath’s life when she enrolled in a nursing degree in her late 50s. Kath topped the State in advanced enrolled nursing, which she puts down to her ‘life experience’. Kath’s nursing work took place at
psychiatric hospitals and the Sacred Heart Hospice in Darlinghurst, where she cared for patients with AIDS.
Kath retired when she was 78 but now at 85 and living in Clayton, Victoria, is still active within her local community. She volunteers at the local Anglican Church and local library teaching English to migrants, and at the St Kilda Repair cafe, where volunteers fix things that need mending. And you can often find Kath enjoying U3A courses and day trips with fellow MSS. Reflecting on the book, Kath hopes it will ‘dispel some of the ageism in society and reveal the richness of older women’s lives’.