LONGTIME nurse union delegate and advocate for better health services Roz Norman has died after an extended illness.
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Mrs Norman had been unwell for some time, after becoming ill on a European holiday in June, and died in Tamworth hospital last Friday.
Her daughter, Rebecca Wiley, said she expected hundreds to attend her mother’s funeral on Friday at 11am at St Peter’s Anglican Church, with people travelling from across Australia.
Former New England MP Tony Windsor will speak and Ms Wiley will do a bible reading and read an original poem. The Tamworth registered nurse was the union representative for Tamworth hospital and a strong voice for nurses in the North West.
She always had her colleagues’ interests at heart and has been remembered on social media site Facebook as an “extraordinary person”.
Ms Wiley paid tribute to her mum as someone everyone loved and who did so much for the community.
Mrs Norman died in the hospital she worked in, so Ms Wiley said nurses were always coming to visit her.
“She was a nurse in the children’s ward and she said to the nurses, ‘what are you doing? Who’s looking after the ward?’ She was telling them to get back there,” Ms Wiley said.
“She was even bossing people around on her death bed. She died right on 3.30pm, which is the shift changeover, so the head of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association Brett Holmes said he’s really proud of her because she stuck to union rules.”
Ms Wiley said her mum was a “really strong person”, but her pulmonary fibrosis was worsened after a trip overseas saw her in hospital in Vienna on life support after contracting double pneumonia.
“Because of what she went through and what she suffered, her lungs were damaged from that pneumonia and that sped up the process, so she had less time,” she said.
“We had family coming to say goodbye to her, giving her a kiss goodbye, saying they loved her.”
She said her mum had always been there for her, including after a terrible car accident in 1997 she wasn’t expected to survive.
Ms Wiley said she would miss her mother’s advice, which she constantly sought.
“Everyone loved her and she was involved in so many organisations but, to me, she was my mum.”
