Doreen Mary Peers was born on Thursday 7 November 1918 at Otawhao, Hawkes Bay. Her parents were George Peers and Alice nee Lightoller. She was born at home and her Aunt Janet was the midwife. She was the first child.

Her brother Richard George (Dick) was born on 2 July 1921. One day when her mother Alice was out milking the cows, three year old Doreen called out to the cow shed that the house was on fire. A log had rolled from the fire place, and the baby was near the fire. So Doreen saved the day!

A little while later they shifted to nearby Hatuma, where Margaret Alice was born. Doreen started school at the age of six - a year late because there was an infantile paralysis scare. At Hatuma school her teacher was Mrs Fletcher, who was a relation by marriage. She was "a very clever teacher". Doreen also took elocution lessons and used to say "milk" in a very correct way. Other pupils used to mimic the way Doreen said "milk".

When she was about eight, Doreen left Hatuma school and went to the Convent School - St Joseph's - in Waipukurau, where she made her First Communion. They had shifted into Waipukurau on Race Course Road. The Sisters from the Convent would call into their house, and when she saw them coming Doreen would jump out the window to avoid them.

They then moved to Shakespeare Road in Napier near Sacred Heart. Doreen however went to the Convent School at Port Ahuriri because they could not afford Sacred Heart. She recalls that when she was in about Standard One she got on the bus to go to school. Contrary to school rules she was carrying her gloves and not wearing them. Two nuns got on the bus, so Doreen hid her hands under her school bag. The nuns said nothing, but during Catechism, which was the first class of the day, she was made to stand before the whole class while it was announced that "Doreen Peers had carried her gloves on the bus".

Doreen wasn't very happy at the Port Ahuriri Convent. Her father was "dying" in Napier Hospital (although he recovered) and her mother was too ill to visit him. Her mother said, "Go to the hospital and say you're over twelve and they'll let you in". So she did that.

Sometime after her father recovered they moved to Waipawa, where Doreen attended the Waipawa Convent. It was there in 1931 that the Napier Earthquake struck. She didn't panic at all. The time for morning break had finished, but because of the heat they were having extra playtime. It was just as well because the chimney fell down through the school.

The family then shifted to Trentham. Doreen went to the Upper Hutt Convent for the last six months of her primary education. She had got ahead, and was a year younger than all the other students in her class. She was declared the "dux" but "Molly" was given the prize because she was a year older and Doreen hadn't been at the school for long enough. Doreen was given a book instead.

The following year Doreen attended Sacred Heart College, Lower Hutt. "Molly" used to sit in the train seat opposite Doreen wearing her dux medal! Doreen attended Sacred Heart for two and a half years. She then got a job working at Calvary Hospital, where she worked for a further two and a half years.

In 1935, Doreen's two year old brother Roger died. Doctor Sternberg was Roger's doctor, and he used to come to Calvary Hospital. Doreen's mother had asked the doctor if he had a job available. Dr Sternberg spoke to a couple of patients who said "she was the best nurse in the hospital" - so Doreen became Dr Sternberg's nurse and receptionist at Trentham. Dr Lemchen was his partner in the practice.

For the first few months she lived in a "shed" at the Sternberg's house and acted as both nurse and housekeeper. When they got a full time housekeeper, Doreen moved back home with her parents but continued to work at the surgery. She was to work there for three years.

One rainy day at the surgery the spouting began to leak. Doreen phoned for a plumber. He arrived and she held the ladder in the wind. That was how Doreen met Frank Goodman.

HAVING MET...

The Peers family moved to Hastings, so Doreen boarded with Mrs Grantham and family who had bought the Peers house in Beth Street, Trentham. Mrs Grantham taught Doreen to sew. "I used to have cold baths because I was frightened to use the hot water up!"

Doreen thought she had better introduce her fiance to the Catholic priest of Upper Hutt, Father Michael Brennan. They made an appointment, and Frank refused to shake his hand!

Doreen moved to Hastings, where her parents lived at Grays Road. She got a job with a dentist and left after three days. "He was a terrible man. I was used to Doctor's procedure!" Then she got a job in a private nursing hospital. She applied to the Hasting's Memorial Hospital for a job, and they wanted her to do training. Doreen said that she couldn't because she was getting married.

For three weeks then she worked for a sick widow. She looked after the widow, the widow's two children and the widow's dairy shop. She then went to Dannevirke to care for an old man who had had a stroke.

Doreen travelled down to Trentham to see Frank. When she called at his place he was away duck-shooting - with the Catholic priest Father Brennan! A week before her wedding Doreen returned from Dannevirke to Hastings. Her mother was in a panic.

After the wedding, they returned to Wellington with Doreen and Rene (Frank's sister) in the back seat and three men squeezed into the front seat. Doreen and Frank crossed to Nelson for their honeymoon. They set up home in Upper Hutt.

On 15 October 1940 their first child, Anthony John, was born. Their second child, Suzanne Jennifer was born on 2 May 1952. World War II had broken out. In 1942 Frank closed his business and joined the Ministry of Works at Trentham Military Camp as plumber and drainlayer.

Around Christmas 1944, Suzanne Goodman recalls her mother sitting on the edge of the bath crying. News had arrived that Doreen's brother, Richard George, had been killed in the war.

On 6 July 1945, their third child, Richard Philip, was born. The war ended at the end of that year, and Frank re-opened his plumbing business.

Frances Marjory, their fourth child, was born on 7 March 1948.

In 1949, Frank sold his plumbing business and bought the leasehold of the Provincial Hotel in Wanganui. Their Upper Hutt house had been sold and the hotel wasn't ready. Buster and Eileen Foster looked after Francie, and Tony and Sue were at boarding school. So Doreen, Frank and Rick spent three weeks living in a hut with only a dirt floor at Moonshine. Doreen was expecting their fifth child. They moved to the Provincial Hotel. Doreen recalls: "It was the first time I had been in a hotel in my life!"

On 6 December 1949 in Wanganui, their fifth child, Bruce Bernard, was born.

They kept the hotel for five years. In 1952, Doreen and Frank bought a small farm at Matarawa - out of Wanganui - and Doreen and the children moved out there.

Frank and Doreen sold the farm at Matarawa and moved to a house at Nixon Street, Wanganui. It was there that Bruce got very sick and nearly died. Doreen and Frank returned to the hotel. The children were at boarding school and Bruce was looked after by a woman called Miss Boon.

In 1953 they sold the hotel and bought a sheep farm at Springhill, Hawkes Bay - called Rosskeen after the place in Scotland where Doreen's brother Dick was buried. The children went to Springhill Primary School - although Tony boarded at St Patrick's College, Silverstream, and Sue boarded at Sacred Heart College, Napier. On 30 July 1954, their sixth child, Leo Patrick, was born at Waipawa.

Frank built a new house on the farm, of 1700 square feet, and they moved into it in 1957. They lived not far from Doreen's sister and husband, Margaret and Bert Worsnop, and the Goodman children spent many happy hours at Wakarara.

Frank and Doreen were very involved with the local community. Many of the locals were Doreen's relatives, for her great-grandparents had lived in the area. Frank was chairman of the School Committee and Doreen was president of the Country Women's Institute.

In 1961 they sold the farm at Springhill and bought a dairy farm at Waikanae on the Kapiti Coast. A large farewell was held at Springhill. For several weeks they lived in a house at Waitarere near Levin, and then moved onto the dairy farm. Sons Tony and Rick became share milkers on the farm, while at the same time becoming interested in earth moving. Sue became a dental nurse and worked in Christchurch. In 1961 she married Allan Archer at Miramar. In 1962 Doreen and Frank became grandparents - with the birth of their first grandchild Mark Richard Archer. Tony married Mehegan Stuart in 1968, Rick married Helen Ryder in 1967, France married Ronald Weggery in 1972, and Bruce was ordained a priest in 1975.

With Tony and Rick running the farm, Frank got a job as Drainage Engineer for the Housing Division of the Ministry of Works in Wellington. He worked there until 1972 when he retired. In the meantime the earth moving business was growing, and Doreen worked as accountant for Goodman Earthmovers. She retired in 1978.

The Dairy Farm had been sold, and Doreen and Frank moved to a house in Waikanae, 37 Rauparaha Street, for several years. In May 1974 they moved to a smaller house at 6A Wakefield Grove.

On 15 January 1984 Frank died of cancer at their home at Waikanae. The following month, their youngest child, Leo, married Kay Williams.

In 1985, Doreen suffered a serious stroke and was paralyzed. She learnt to work and speak again - albeit with a German accent! Later she moved to Auckland and lived with her daughter Sue. Then she returned to Waikanae where she lived at Unit 20, 394 Te Moana Rd, Waikanae. Her main interests were the many grandchildren and multitudinous great grandchildren!

After suffering a stroke, she died on 2 February 2006 at Wellington Hospital.