Newspaper Article 1981 – Pigeons chosen as theme for Napier woman’s second book

Pigeons chosen as theme for Napier woman’s second book

Horace the dolphin’s soul-mate during his stay in Napier, Mrs Rosamond Rowe, has chosen two adopted pigeons as the basis for her second book.

Her talents as an author were latent until a chance contact with radio personality Helen McConnochie led to involvement with the programme “Future Indicative”.

“I wrote to Helen asking whether she had contact with others suffering from Meniere’s disease. The radio programme she produces is a forum for sharing and understanding the special concerns of the disabled.

She said she knew of no other sufferers and suggested I did a programme on my own experiences.

“I answered no. Then Allan, my husband, said I owed it to people to tell them of the fight I had to convince doctors I didn’t have a super case of nerves; that I wasn’t neurotic; that my sudden dizziness, vertigo, and inability, sometimes even to sit up, was a medical condition.

“I realised that I owed it to other people to tell them about this ghastly, hidden disability,” Mrs Rowe said.

HUGE RESPONSE

“I mentioned my friendship with Horace and the uplift this deep relationship gave me.

“The programme evoked a huge response from all over New Zealand. As well it brought an offer from a publisher to write a book along the same lines.”

“Initially, Rosamond was given six weeks to write “Feet Upon a Rock” but illness forced her to “knock off for a while”. She still completed the manuscript unaided in about nine weeks.

“It was when my daughter Odette went to school I decided I had to try and branch out; be selfish if you like. Use some energy on myself.

“Just at that time Odette read about Horace in Hawke Bay. Here was an interest that would not be selfish. Something the whole family could take an interest in.

“We drove down to the harbour and on that first night we caught a glimpse of Horace. But in the weeks that followed we just could not sight him.

“Then Frank Robson said he would try and bring Horace into the Inner Harbour.

“The first time Horace came in close I did not have the heart to admit I could not swim. I was so excited. Although I had no swimsuit I just stripped off there and then and struggled until I was waist deep in the water.

EFFORT SENSED

“Horace seemed to sense my effort and he cruised about not far from me. It was magic.

“As a family we visited the Inner Harbour nearly every day. Allan would swim out to Horace and I hated his guts for being able to swim.

“I had really gone mad and bought myself a swimsuit and even tried to dog paddle. I was actually dog paddling one night when a catamaran passed me and the crew offered to pull me out to a keeler at anchor where Horace often frolicked about.

“I was excited. I lost track of time and then, suddenly I realised I was freezing cold and dizzy, I yelled to Allan.

‘Then I stretched my legs down and found something firm to stand on.

When Allan reached me I said it was all right, that I had my feet upon a rock. How stupid can you get? A rock just below the water line where dozens of boats were anchored.

DOLPHIN’S AID?

“I stretched my legs down again and there was nothing there but water, I am certain Horace read my panic and gave me that firm foothold.”

Mrs Rowe chose “My Feet Upon a Rock” as the title for her first literary effort.

It was not long after that experience that Horace started coming close into shore. He had to roll sideways to get into the shallow water less than knee depth beside me.

“Then Allan and I realised that if you did not weight wet suits you floated around on the surface. That was the answer for me. I could float out to Horace and then he pulled me round as I held his fin.”

When Horace disappeared – as quickly as he had arrived – it was not quite the traumatic experience for Mrs Rowe that she had expected.

“We kept looking for him – we still keep looking for him – but it was about a month before it really struck us that he had gone.”

Despite the loss to Mrs Rowe, Horace left behind a woman deeply devoted to the creatures of the sea; as she had always been devoted to the animals and birds of the land.

Both Allan and Rosamond and their family have taken a keen interest in whale watching since Horace left them and on two separate occasions have spotted Southern Right whales in Hawke Bay.

RARE VISITORS

“There have been Orcas, sperm and even two Southern bottle-nosed whales which are very rare.”

Mrs Rowe’s first real acquaintance with Marineland – where later she was to swim regularly with the “captive” dolphins – was through two injured birds.

“We saw them down near the pierhead. A gannet and black-backed gull tangled up in nylon netting. We managed to free them but the gannet died before we got it to Marineland.

Some months later the position was reversed when Marineland asked the Rowes to care for two pigeons injured in a fire at the T and G Building.

In fact the pair became the basis for Mrs Rowe’s new book.

“They were a sorry sight after they had been caught in the tower during the fire but we nursed them back to health and they actually bred before they both left us.

“We still have some of their ‘family’ in the loft.”

Surrounded, in their Cameron Road home by bantams, guinea pigs, rabbits, pigeons and a cat, the Rowe family manages to keep in touch even when Mrs Rowe is not well enough to leave the section.

“Allan and the kids often take a pigeon with them and then they send it home to me with a message to say what they are doing. That makes me part of their outing and my hidden disability seems to diminish.

“Doing things with critters” – including the two scorched pigeons forms the storyline of Mrs Rowe’s new book.

“Really it is the story of a suburban family frustrated by town living away from the countryside, beaches and sky,’ Mrs Rowe said.

FOR BLIND

Mrs Rowe was last week asked by the Hastings-based Sunshine Supplement, to read “Feet Upon a Rock” for blind people.

The founder of a “talking newspaper”, Mrs June Stead, said Mrs Rowe auditioned for the reading and was “just perfect’’.

Photo caption – NAPIER women Mrs Rosamond Rowe with Young Cobra, whose father was rescued from the flame-flicked T and G Building tower in Napier.