Past students and staff of St Ann’s College were deeply saddened to learn in July of this year, that former staff member, Mary Hulin, had passed away.
For many years, Mary worked in the St Ann’s Library, alongside her steadfast friends Margaret Quill and Kim Tobin, as well as in the office with her dear friend Teresa Howard. However, Mary first began working at St Ann’s in the canteen; her eldest daughter, Maryanne, was a student at the school at that time, and Mary’s younger daughters, Margaret and Bernadette, also attended St Ann’s, while sone Peter attended CBC.
The Library, when Mary started working there in 1976, was in the old caretaker’s cottage. Mary’s work-post was by the window, which she loved, as she could observe the action going on outside as she worked. However, it was also because her husband Johannes (John) would collect her each day to take her home for lunch. Dedicated as she was to any task at hand, the moment he arrived Mary would shoot up from her seat and leave. She hated keeping anyone waiting!
Upon Johannes’ sudden and untimely death in 1977, Mary, at a still young age, unexpectedly found herself in the position of having the sole responsibility of raising her family. Mary faced this daunting reality with the same sense of purpose and dedication with which she faced every obstacle life placed in her path. Jerry Quill made sure she learned to drive, a skill, which she hadn’t yet mastered when her husband died. She embedded in her children the same life lessons to which she held firm herself: extend the hand of kindness to all you meet, have compassion for those in need, strive for peace and harmony at any price, and if you can’t say something nice, then don’t speak.
St Ann’s became a place of love, friendship and laughter for Mary. Margaret Quill remembers Mary as one who “...did an amazing job. Being on her own, with a young family to care for, she still managed to do all the typing for the library. In addition to this, she also worked in the office with Teresa and had the task of completing all of the photocopying on the old Roneo machine. Working with carbon copies was not an easy job. No one in the school was more dedicated to her job than Mary. She never once left a minute early and often stayed back to help the senior girls copy work for their assessments. Mary absolutely realized how important having everything ‘right’ was going to be for their futures.”
Margaret Quill also noted that Mary must have prepared hundreds of Mass booklets over the years, not only for school functions, but also for the requiems of the community’s family members, again without the benefit of a computer. Margaret regularly called on Mary’s assistance when information on music and composers was requested, as she had a wealth of knowledge on everything from classical to folk - the love of which saw Mary ensconced in Port Fairy each year for the duration of the Folk Festival.
Apart from her family, her faith and her flowers, notes Margaret, Mary’s other consuming ‘F’ was football, or, more accurately, Hawthorn: “She did not appreciate it when I put a display in the
Library foyer to celebrate a Carlton premiership, but Mary did have the last laugh on that front in recent years, to her great delight.”
Mary was the embodiment of the Gospel value of ‘The last shall be first, and the first shall be last.’ She always put others before herself, but in simple ways, being kind and unobtrusive at all times. Mary rarely attended staff morning teas, insisting that her colleagues should be able to go instead, and she could always be relied upon to keep a confidence. Sister Philomene held Mary in high esteem; having both come from Northern Victoria gave them much in common. Mary was probably instrumental in helping the library staff convince Sr. Philomene to buy a photocopier - it certainly made their lives easier! However, it was usually a time of high anxiety when she would return from trips to Melbourne, armed with loads of books that the Library already had! Philomene could not resist a sale sign, but Mary then had to type hundreds of cards and cover all of the books. She never complained, as Philomene gave the Library an unlimited budget, but those were the days before computers so the task took ages.
Mary, Margaret Quill and Teresa Howard sustained a wonderful relationship over the years, and their friendships endured and were enhanced after they retired. One of Mary’s fondest experiences towards the end of her life was attending the Emmanuel College Librarian’s reunion dinner in 2014. She absolutely loved it, and relished the opportunity to be among some of her oldest friends and colleagues again. Being a resident at Mercy Place, and being able to look out over those familiar environs of the school, gave Mary so much pleasure. Mary Hulin was a true lady in every sense of the word. She loved St Ann’s and all that the school brought to her life. The rich Irish-Catholic tradition of kindness, humility and compassion which had surrounded Mary as a child, instilled in her and her siblings by her parents, remained with Mary throughout her life and was a hallmark by which she will always be remembered. We give thanks for Mary’s life, and will treasure her memory forever.
