BY KATH WARE (DAUGHTER)
Margaret McKinley died on 30th December 2024 in Mark Donaldson VC House Galston at the age of 93. Throughout her long busy life she wore many hats: a teacher and catechist; a nature lover, gardener, farmer and environmentalist; a dressmaker and home maker; an artist and music connoisseur; a genealogist and historian; a community activist, and an irrepressible volunteer. But the role that had the most profound impact on those who were closest to her was as the disarmingly modest, but hugely inspiring, matriarch of the McKinley family.
Margaret Ann Cape was born on 18th December 1931 in Cooma. Her early years were spent on a sheep property in Merriwa.
Margaret attended high school at Sacred Heart Rose Bay and went on to Sydney Kindergarten Training College, where she graduated as a pre-school teacher. She met her future husband, Edward McKinley, at her 21st birthday party. In 1955, Margaret married Ted and they bought a 13 acre property in Dural. The property cost 100 pounds per acre, and they scrimped, saved and toiled away to build a three bedroom home stick by stick, with most of the work done personally by the pair of them. The power was only connected after the house was finished, so everything had to be done without the aid of mains electricity. Over the years the couple had eight children.
Margaret was an intrepid volunteer. Much of her work was connected to the local parish. She was on hand when the Benedictine Monks bought a property in Arcadia in 1961, and helped the priests with transport, meals and shopping while the monastery was being built. She also served as a catechist, or scripture teacher, for 36 years, starting at Middle Dural public school in 1965.
Margaret earned extra income for her family by making school uniforms, netball uniforms and bespoke aprons for people in the local community. So it was only natural that she should apply these skills to her volunteer work, and over the years she made many robes for lay ministers and habits for the Benedictine Monks. She also loved cooking, and regularly made cakes for school fetes and Arcadia monastery fetes.
In 1971, Margaret joined a group of like-minded locals to form Dural Neighbour Aid. Over the years they did housework and cleaning for sick and elderly people, cooked hot meals, and provided transport to medical appointments and other engagements. She retired from her Neighbour Aid duties in 2019, after 47 years of service.
Margaret had a very strong sense of history, and the importance of understanding the back story to the way people lived their lives and how communities evolved over time. She joined the Dural Historical Society in 1999 and worked there until 2019. During this time she researched and wrote up the histories of many buildings, institutions and families in the region.
In her spare time, Margaret loved listening to fine music. Although she wasn’t a stage performer herself, she couldn’t bear just being a spectator, so in 2002 she helped to organise a concert series for Arcadian Musical Recitals. Margaret continued in the role of administration and publicity manager for the next 13 years, right up until she entered Rowland Village.
After Ted died in 2014, Margaret sold her Dural home and moved into a self-contained unit in Rowland Village. Some of the other residents in the village were already friends and acquaintances, and she quickly made new friends with her neighbours, helping them with their gardening, letter writing and meals.
The day before Margaret died, Father Michael came and spoke to her, and administered the last rites. She was very weak, but at peace and ready to bring to a close her amazing life. Margaret passed away on Monday 30th December 2024. She was farewelled by her family, friends and the local community at a requiem Mass at St Benedicts Parish Church, Arcadia on 9th January. Her humble, unassuming but immensely giving and productive life continues to be an inspiration to everyone who was touched by it.
