Word and image - Chris Proctor
When it comes to long service, few can say that they still wish to continue after nearly 30 years of work. Mrs Margaret Knight, however, is an exception. Margaret’s day begins well before that of most New Zealanders. She gets up at 3:30 am and arrives at her cleaning job at Lindisfarne College by 4:30 am. I asked Margaret what made her get up in the morning, and she promptly said, “I just love coming to work because each day is just completely different. I love interacting with the staff and the boys. In the time I’ve been here, I have probably come across thousands of boys. It’s crazy to think that some of the sons of Old Boys are here now, that were here when I first started.” Margaret is in charge of cleaning an entire block at the college, including the large auditorium. She says she loves working at Lindisfarne because of the satiisfaction she gets from it and the fact that it keeps her fit, adding that she really values serving her community.
One of her happy memories from her time at Lindisfarne was secret admirer week in 2021. “One of the things we do as a staff is secret admirer week. You write down on this sheet what things you enjoy, food etc.. And for music I wrote down Jazz and the Bag- pipes and on that Tuesday morning I heard Fergus Murunga (Lindisfarne College Piper) come to the library and play the bagpipes, which had flowers in them and I wondered what on earth was going on and my secret admirer had got Fergus to play the bagpipes and that just about brought me to tears.”
Margaret likes to chill out, garden, shop, read glossy magazines, seeing comedies and musicals, go for walks, and catch up with friends in her free time. She also loves travel to see her daughter in Australia and to take her daughter and her daughter’s dog, Frankie, to the beach during the summer.
Margaret’s dedication to her job is incredible. She gets to school, hours before anyone even dreams of snoozing their alarm clock and often is the last to leave. And even after almost 30 years of working and her name upon the long-service board in the College dining hall, she still says, “I’d like to do a few more.”
