Kirk Hargreaves/Stuff
Nancy Meherne, known as a “legend of Sumner”, has died aged 93. (File photo taken in 2015)
A 93-year-old Christchurch surfer who “lived for the ocean” has died surrounded by family.
Nancy Meherne was well known in the Sumner community, where she learned everything from harmonica to xylophone. She was also a familiar face for beachgoers and surfers at Sumner Beach, surf at every opportunity they could get†
A close friend of Meherne’s, Brittany Travis, said she “lived for the ocean, her garden, music and of course her friends and family”.
She lived a simple but “enriched life” with a passion for music, dance and theatre.
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“She would take every opportunity to provide children with creative opportunities through private tutoring and volunteering in schools,” Travis said.
“She believed that every child was full of potential and deserved the opportunity to learn music.”
After many decades of teaching Sumner, Meherne would be “dearly missed,” she said.
Her daughter, who declined to be named, said her mother was fine until Tuesday morning, but was taken to hospital where she died Wednesday morning, surrounded by family.
She said she had been “slowing down” since February, when she last went surfing but was still active, gardening and taking the bus around town.
Kirk Hargreaves/Stuff
Meherne was known in the Sumner community for years of braving the waves with her 1970s board.
“She was always a hard worker, trying to give her products away and clearing them for people.”
Meherne “knew all the bus drivers” and would take the bus, including to trade her weeds for eggs with a nearby resident.
“She has influenced many people in many ways.”
Last year she told stuff she would still go out on the waves as long as she could “take a little jump” to get herself and her board onto the waves.
She continued to live in her Sumner house, two and a half blocks from the beach, and cycled from her house to watch the surf. If it got her approval, she’d ride back and grab her board, which dated back to the ’70s, and stay in it until her toes went numb.
Meherne never learned to stand up, but started bodysurfing in her early forties, when she borrowed her late son’s surfboard.
Kirk Hargreaves/Stuff
Meherne was also a much-loved music teacher, leaving behind an “incredible legacy of musicians.”
She said stuff in 2015 that she would work less, which meant she could spend more time in the ocean.
Meherne was a music teacher at the Sumner School for about 16 years, her daughter said, and worked there until she retired in the early 1990s. However, she continued to volunteer as a music teacher for another 25 years.
Sumner resident Beth Cohen said she got to know Meherne “later in life” but that she was “always there” when she needed her.
“She was an amazing soul… Absolutely there for everyone and everyone.”
Cohen, who is also a piano teacher, said Meherne shared her students with her when she first arrived in Christchurch from New York. She gave “really,” she said.
“She left an incredible legacy of musicians in Sumner.”
Social media tributes on Sumner’s community page sparked dozens of responses from local residents, evoking memories of the ‘incredible teacher’ teaching in the 1970s.
She was described as a “legend of Sumner” and a “truly special teacher” with “lust for life and kindness”.
One person described Maherne as a “strong independent woman who has touched so much of our lives”.
Another said: “Nancy was inspiring. Her lifelong dedication to teaching music and her passion for surfing helps to stimulate and encourage us all to follow our passions.”
Meherne was the mother of three children and had seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
A funeral date has yet to be confirmed, but Travis said she also had plans to hold a memorial service in Sumner to celebrate Meherne’s life with the community.