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The Stars are Comforting

In 2006 Beatrice’s letters were returned to me by her biographer, Christine Cole Catley, who had been lent them by my father, Edward Hill, at the start of her project. (Edward had died in 200l.) While I read them, Beatrice came to life again for me and I felt sure that others would enjoy her vivid, humorous style, the story of her adult life and her observations on people, places, conservation and politics, to name but a few of her themes. Pre-eminent among these was music, which was a life-long passion with her, both playing her violin and going to concerts. (She did not talk about her scientific work much, except as an enthusiastic student, because she knew that her parents and other family members to whom she wrote would not understand it.) I had the idea of making extracts from her letters for radio and suggesting music to go with them.

Although she spent her adult life in America, Beatrice looked back nostalgically to New Zealand, particularly Christchurch where she was a student and Lake Taupo where our family went on holiday. Beatrice’s contemporaries at Canterbury University will find echoes of their own lives in her narrative. Her experience as a wife and mother in the 60’s and 70’s will also have resonances for many other women of her generation.

The letters span the years 1958 (Beatrice’s first year at Canterbury University) to 1981, the year of her death, aged 40 at Yale where she was a professor. There were approximately one thousand written sides of paper, and this was not the full sum of the letters written home to New Zealand as the family did not keep them all. Through study, home-making, childrearing, teaching, travel, research, socializing and voluntary work, Beatrice always made time to write. She had tremendous drive and energy and it was clearly very important to her to stay in touch.

The letters do not tell the whole story of her life, but her choice of subject-matter reveals a lot about her character; she didn’t want her family to worry about her and she wished to interest and entertain them when she wrote. She did her best to minimize the impact of her final illness, being as positive as possible about every stage, and even offering comfort to her father for her own coming death. She had great courage.

I hope that the extracts from her letters will convey something of her unique mind and spirit. In addition to her scientific achievements she deserves to be remembered for her zest for life and her devotion to her family and friends.

Theodora Lee-Smith
2009