16 Sep 2009
Less than a week after bidding farewell to our good friend John Ryan, Cambridge Stud has lost another stalwart. Long-serving cook at Cambridge Stud, Paddy Harding, passed away at Waikato Hospital earlier this week after a bravely born illness.
Paddy was not just cook to the many staff who passed through Cambridge Stud in the ten plus years she worked there. She was also well known for her willingness to cook and offer assistance to anyone.
Nominated in 2008 for the local daily newspaper, the Waikato Times, Unsung Heroes reader competition, the paper reported a friend as saying, "Paddy was always ready to help people, whether cooking meals at the Cambridge Stroke Club on a Thursday night, dropping off fresh bags of vegetables or bunches of flowers to friends or strangers or, as she did this year, (2008) pitching in at April's fatal Icepak Coolstores fire at Tamahere. "If anyone needs anything it is Paddy they turn to. I am very proud to call her my friend."
Always ready with a smile, a friendly word and some home-baked cooking, Paddy was truly a part of Cambridge Stud and we were proud as well to call her our friend. She will be sorely missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with her husband Sam and their family at this sad time.