by Margaret Thomas, AWARE President

AWARE this year lost two of its earliest members and staunchest supporters, Ann Wee and Myrna Blake.

Ann died on Wednesday, 11 December 2019, aged 93. She had been in good health and was looking forward to a busy Christmas when, while reading the newspaper at breakfast, she closed her eyes and died.  

Myrna died in June, aged 83. She had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease some 15 years earlier but continued with her work and community activities for as long as it was possible.

Ann and Myrna were both pioneering social workers and educators who touched countless lives—students, clients, colleagues, policymakers, members of the public—in their many years of visionary, caring and dedicated service.  

When AWARE was formally launched in March 1986, Ann and Myrna were among the first to sign up as members. They were active members, each serving several stints on the Executive Committee and various subcommittees. They regularly turned up for annual general meetings and other events, and were always ready to lend a hand or offer their views whenever there was a need.

In 1991, when AWARE started its Helpline, Myrna provided invaluable guidance. For more than a decade she led the Helpline subcommittee and supervised the training of the Helpline volunteers.

In a blog post about Myrna shortly after her death, former AWARE president Constance Singam wrote: “As a social worker, she embodied the best of social work ethics and code of practice. In AWARE as well as in PAVE, she was committed to pursuing social change, particularly on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. She focused primarily on issue of poverty, and discrimination, and other forms of social injustice.

“We at AWARE owe her a debt of gratitude for her invaluable work with the AWARE Helpline. And also for her many reminders of the feminist value of treating women and men as equals, and with respect whatever the differences in their circumstances.”

Interviewed in the mid-1990s by the National Archives Oral History Unit, Ann spoke about how she had gone through the rigorous training to be a Helpline volunteer and was doing twice-monthly duty on the Helpline. She said: “I find that very interesting because from the number of calls that come in, there are obviously a lot of women who need somebody neutral to talk over their problems.”

She also talked about being a member of AWARE: “I think one real circle that has taken me away from just kind of mixing with colleagues was membership of the Association of Women for Action and Research…  I [have] come across women of all age groups and all kinds of different occupations and backgrounds. That has been very enriching.”

AWARE, meanwhile, has been enriched by the participation and support of Ann and Myrna. They will be very much missed.