SHE always put her patients first.
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There were many words spoken about Barbara Wren at a small, very personal ceremony at Daffodil Cottage recently, but her dedication to her patients and the people of Bathurst was the clear theme.
"She was a very special lady. Her patients loved her and what she did," Daffodil specialist Michelle Morgan said.
Mrs Wren's family and ex-Daffodil staff members were at the facility for the unveiling of a framed photo and information sign about her and the start of what will be an ongoing presentation of her quilts.
"Barbara was a great quilter and there were quilts that she was in the process of making before she passed away [in February 2022]," Daffodil's nurse manager Mooreen Macleay said.
"Her friends finished them off for her and the family very generously donated them to us.
"And so now we're having a rotating exhibition of them throughout the year. We'll have one at a time going."
When Mrs Wren retired in late 2008, she was described as "the face of Daffodil Cottage".
A Western Advocate article marking her retirement from the cottage said she started her nursing career in 1965 at Prince Henry Hospital in Sydney and came to Bathurst District Hospital in 1970 to complete her training, working mostly in the medical wards.
She became sister-in-charge of the medical ward, which included the children's ward, in 1978.
Having set up an oncology ward in the space vacated by the children's ward, she became a member of the Cancer Patients Assistance Society (now Can Assist) and then set her sights higher.
"We decided to hold a fundraiser for a standalone building and that's when Daffodil Cottage was born," she told the Advocate.
The fundraising began in 1994 and the cottage opened in 1996.
"It was an amazing time. I will never forget the day the fundraising was launched - the outpouring of stories and the news that people were coming in and giving money, labour and materials," Mrs Wren said.
"It was an incredible community effort. Unbelievable."
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Mrs Wren told the Advocate that the aim was to avoid making Daffodil feel clinical.
"You know you walk into Daffodil Cottage and you immediately feel like you're in somebody's home. That's what we wanted," she said.
As the information sign at the cottage explains, Mrs Wren had a very personal reason to devote herself to cancer support services: the loss of her young daughter to a brain tumour in 1982.
At the recent ceremony at Daffodil, nurse manager Ms Macleay said Mrs Wren was a woman of "dedication, drive and all-round hard work" who "saw a gap in the health care services being provided to the Bathurst community and she literally went out and did something about it".
Her husband Kevin said it was a pleasure to see the information sign and quilt on the wall.
"In the days when we did the fundraising, she was never home, she was always at clubs or functions," he said.
"The amount of money she raised was astronomical."
Renee Boudet, who worked at Bathurst Hospital for 35 years, said her colleague Mrs Wren made sure her patients came first.
"She always was concerned about their wellbeing and what they needed," she said.
On Daffodil Day, Ms Boudet said, Mrs Wren would "go to all the businesses in town and ask them would they sell daffodils".
"She was just a fantastic motivator," she said.
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