Avondale alumna cited for all-round service in the South Pacific
She had promised to go where God called, and when the call to New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) came, Margaret Watts packed up her little family and followed. Together with husband Horrie, whom she married in 1951, the recipient of a citation from the Class of 1946 at Homecoming this year would serve in the Pacific for the next decade, raising the couple’s three children—Judith, Loren and Debbie—in the mission field.
Her nursing training at Sydney Adventist Hospital proved valuable, and Watts often took the role of doctor when the need arose. On one occasion, only days after arriving, a man appeared on the Watts’s doorstep in pain—he needed a tooth removed. Relying only on Horrie’s one hour of dental training and Margaret’s basic dentistry book, the two attempted to numb the jaw and remove the tooth while trying to communicate in Pidgin. “Just like removing a carrot from the ground!” they’d been told. As soon as they removed the tooth, the patient bolted for the door and didn’t return. A few weeks later he reappeared to thank them. “First time methink me go away and die!” It was the beginning of a journey that would see Watts ministering to the needs of many and assisting as midwife for hundreds of births.
In addition to her medical assistance, Watts took on with tenacity and courage the numerous duties that befell her in the mission field. She became a choir mistress, a seamstress, a hairdresser and a homeschool and Sabbath school teacher. On her return to Australia, Watts continued ministering with Horrie, serving as matron at what is now Edinburgh College (Lilydale, Vic) and at Rossmoyne Adventist Retirement Village (WA). Her retirement has seen the publication of Dearest Folks, a book based on the letters she sent home to family in Australia during her mission service.
The Class of 1946 honours Margaret Watts for a life of service to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, particularly in the Pacific islands.
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