Myrna Hills dies aged 74 in Farrarmere
A life spent doing good deeds for the community ended on Sunday, with the death of Benonian Myrna Hills (née Ritchie).
“Myrna did so much good work,” said her friend Lynne Kirton, a fellow Benonian who now lives in Nelspruit.
“I don’t think people know just how much.”
“Her charity work will live in me forever.
“She was never too good to walk into the shops in Prince’s Avenue to ask for money for charity.”
Hills died at her home in Farrarmere at the age of 74, just four weeks after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
She was born in 1942, shortly before her father, George Lowden Ritchie, went to war in Egypt and Italy, leaving her and her older brothers, Alex and Brian Ritchie, in the care of their mother, Trilby.
Hills attended Benoni West and Benoni Junior schools, and then Benoni High School, before training as a Burroughs accounting machine operator and joining Barclays Bank.
It was, however, while she was working for Morrie and Gerald Nestadt, at Raylite Batteries, in Benoni, that she met handsome young auditor Billy Hills, the man she would marry.
He died in October, 2011.
The family owned Amalgamated Press, and the City Times was one of the publications under the company’s umbrella.
She had felt drawn to care for others even while at school.
“I’ve always been a carer, right from the day I was born,” she said shortly after falling ill.
“There’s always been a side of me looking for how I can help.”
She realised this desire to serve not long after tying the knot, joining first Round Table 23, and some years later becoming a Benoni Rotary Ann.
She had learnt to sew and knit at an early age and put these talents to good use helping the disadvantaged; she sewed hundreds of tiny jackets for premature babies and knitted hats for Choc.
She also helped to pack trauma care packs, and to set up a children’s room at the magistrates court.
She loved children, but also had a soft spot for the elderly, and helped organise an annual luncheon for them.
Hills leaves behind her brother Alex, her children Carol Stier, Elaine Pullinger and Raymond Hills, and grandchildren Taylor, Alexia and Erin Pullinger, and Lucan Hills.
Her funeral will be held at 10am on Tuesday, October 4, at St Dunstan’s Cathedral.
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