Orma COOMER Obituary

I am so sad to hear of the passing of a very special lady.
Mrs Coomer (Orma) was a very special part of my life and was treasured as a second Mum to me. She was my coach and mentor when I was a cadet in the North Otago St John Ambulance Corps. She helped me to gain the top cadet level, Grand Prior Award and one of the optional badges was knitting. One of the special memories I still treasure is when Orma taught me how to 'turn the heel.'
It was a tremendous honour to lead the pairs team along with Robert Nisbet to win the Roderick Bruce Coomer Memorial Rosebowl at the National Championships in Invercargill. I recall it was the first year of competition for Roderick's Memorial Rosebowl and we won it for Otago and specially for our coach - Roderick's Mum, Orma.
The Coomer and Macrae families had a lot in common with our Dads working together and also many times trout and salmon fishing together.
When visiting Oamaru over the past 40 years we have visited Orma and shared our children and grandchildren. She was always an important part of our visits home to Oamaru.
When we saw Orma last September at my sister, Jill's 60th birthday party, she looked so well and was proud that she was still driving and really enjoying life. We were lucky to also meet up unexpectedly at the Habourside restaurant for lunch...'turning the heel' was also discussed!
My trips home will now be missing a special reunion.
Our condolences to Graham and Ellen and families. Your Mum was and still is an angel.
She instilled in me the expectation to do your best and second best wasn't good enough.
Arohanui, Orma

With much love from David Macrae