1 Dec 25 - Resident stories
An intrepid life
Margie Dennis has “always been intrepid.” When she was a mere four years old, the Summerset on Summerhill resident would travel eight stops on the tram to and from kindergarten by herself.
This bold spirit continued into adulthood when, aged 28, she moved from New Zealand to Lahore in Pakistan in 1969, working at the Kinnaird College for Women as the personal assistant to the principal.
Highly esteemed, the college was a favourite location for the Pakistani government to send visiting dignitaries; both Princess Diana and Mother Teresa were among its famous visitors.
For Margie, it was a wonderful experience, and she remained in Pakistan for eight years. She learned the language and thoroughly immersed herself in the culture of the region, which was so very different from the one she had grown up with.
However, her parents missed her greatly and she returned home to New Zealand. “It had been very hard on my parents for me to be away all that time,” Margie says. “I wrote aerograms to them twice a week for eight years. One of the neighbours later told me she would see my father walk to the letterbox sometimes five times a day to see if he’d received my latest news.” Margie still has all the aerograms detailing her time away that her parents had dutifully kept.
Back in New Zealand, Margie met and fell in love with Keith, the man who would become her husband. “We had seven wonderful years together before Keith died of cancer. He taught me what unconditional love looked like.”
In the 1990s, there was upheaval on the international stage. Hong Kong was being handed back to China by the British, and Margie assisted Chinese migrants moving to Auckland. “Many of them were coming to escape the handover of Hong Kong back to the Chinese,” says Margie. “They brought family with them who didn’t speak much English. I’m not an English teacher but I could help them – from my time in Pakistan I knew how to relate cross-culturally.” Margie helped many Chinese ‘grandmas’ settle in New Zealand, including advising how to cook with the Western ingredients available, which were so different from what they knew.
In 1995 Margie decided to go overseas again. “I was in good health, I didn’t have any family, as my parents and Keith had passed, and I was ready to try something else.”
Bruce Gibbs, who had previously been principal of Homai School, a specialist school for students who are blind or have low vision in Manurewa, had moved to Afghanistan to head up an eyecare NGO, International Assistance Mission (IAM). He asked Margie to come on board as a counsellor. Aware she was not qualified for such a role, Margie nonetheless looked at the job description and realised she could do most of it. “I said that if he changed the job title to Pastoral Care’ I’d do it. He did.”
Margie was no stranger to Afghanistan, having holidayed there twice while living in Pakistan. “It felt more advanced than Pakistan in those days – there were tourist buses and beautiful places to stay. It was lovely.”
However, the Afghanistan she returned to was very different after the Soviet–Afghan War, the fighting between the Mujahideen factions and the subsequent rise of the Taliban across the country.
“It was chaos. Every road had been bombed, buildings were destroyed, and the electricity didn’t work. IAM had worked hard to create the best possible living conditions for the team there so we could do our work.
“As a pastoral care worker my role was to help the people working for IAM to settle and to live and work effectively in Afghanistan. There were 150 people there from 17 different countries – my ability to relate across different cultures was very important.”
From helping with household items such as sourcing and hanging curtains, organising food and most of all offering a listening ear, Margie would help in any way she could.
After more than 35 years as an NGO in Afghanistan, IAM was thrown out of the country by the Taliban in 2001. Most of the workers left to go back to their homelands, but Margie had moved just across the border into Peshawar in Pakistan. IAM’s work continued, but in a different way.
“I loved living in Peshawar. I set up a house there for my colleagues and me, and we were all together.” After Christmas 2001, a few short months after 9/11, IAM was welcomed back “with open arms” to an Afghanistan where the Taliban had surrendered following the USA’s invasion.
On her return to Afghanistan, Margie spent her last years there turning a disused warehouse into a guest house for IAM workers, which she ran. It was a daunting task, as the building IAM had to renovate was decrepit. “There were 28 cars on the grounds, nothing worked, there was no furniture, and all the windows were broken or had no glass. It was a horror,” Margie recalls.
Margie’s energy and positivity helped her get stuck into the project with gusto. “With funds donated from New Zealand, I bought furniture, carpets and curtains from staff housing at a school in Pakistan that had relocated to another country due to a terror attack. With the help of a lot of people we got it done.”
In 2006, Margie decided it was time to move back to New Zealand, and the Auckland native settled in Palmerston North to be closer to her surrogate daughter, Kathryn, who had lived with Margie and Keith when she was a first-year teacher in Auckland. “Kathryn was part of our church and quickly became family. I’d never spent much time in Palmerston North, but Kathryn moved here when she married.”
Margie moved into Summerset on Summerhill almost 20 years ago. Her light-filled villa is dotted with reminders of her time in Pakistan and Afghanistan, with couches, embroidery, photographs and much more displaying the influence of that part of the world.
Margie’s dedication to service and helping others didn’t end with her move to Palmerston North, however. “When I got back to New Zealand, I believed I would never see another Afghan again. However, following years of upheaval under successive regimes, our government gave shelter to Afghan refugees, with a particular emphasis on women and children. Many men were killed in the war – some just disappeared never to be seen again.
“These women were leaving a very patriarchal society to forge a new life on their own. A friend suggested I should help them through the Red Cross and that’s what I did – I did the training and signed myself up.”
From her time overseas Margie had learned both Urdu and Dari (an official language of Afghanistan) and could help these refugees to start their new lives.
“My role was really to do everything I could to help. That included enrolling the children in school, helping to get uniforms, interviews with the Ministry of Social Development, shopping, setting up their house, and more. Typically, it was a one-year commitment with each family, and they leaned on us a lot – I ran myself into the ground sometimes.”
“Some people treat this as a job, but it was much more for me. I welcomed them into my home and my heart.”
Margie helped six families during her time with the Red Cross and remains in contact with them today. She’s clearly very proud of “her families”, keeping track of the achievements and progress they’ve made in Kiwi life. “It’s very hard for many of them. So many of these people suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after what they’ve lived through.”
Seeing the need for better housing for refugees, Margie founded the Agapanthus Housing Trust. “I feel I was moved by God to find better homes for these families. I spoke to friends, and they encouraged me to stand up in church one day to talk about what I think was needed.
“I was amazed that people from my church offered $550,000 in loans! We set up the trust and it now has three houses and hopes to have ten in the next ten years.”
Many of Margie’s families have flourished – children have graduated university and others have thriving careers. For one family’s daughter, Margie has just completed an 80,000-stitch tapestry as a wedding gift. Sewing for three hours a day, the stunning piece took her nine months to complete. “Tapestry is about patience and accuracy,” Margie says modestly.
As well as her refugee work and helping Kathryn with her six children, Margie, whose faith is very important to her, is deeply involved with assisting fellow members of her church.
“I realised one day that our church had some lonely people, so I said that if anyone wants to come to my house once a week for a meal, I’d love to have them.”
The offer was readily accepted, and for many years Margie has hosted up to nine guests weekly at her villa. Labour Day 2025 was her last hosted dinner, as she realised it was getting too much for her.
This time, the dinner was held in the village’s recreation centre, and she got a cooked ham so that she too could relax and enjoy the evening.
“I am in my eighties now; it is time for me to slow down. I am looking forward to taking part more in village life.”
This is an article from the Summer 2025 edition of Summerset Scene magazine