Crash victim loved job as Kirks lift lady

KAY BLUNDELL/The Dominion Post

CRASH VICTIMS: David Priestly holds a photo of his parents Thomas and Patricia Priestley who were killed in a head on collision on SH1 near Peka Peka on Sunday.

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The woman who died after a head-on crash on the Kapiti Coast was Kirkcaldie & Stains' last "lift lady".

Patricia Priestley, 77, of Levin, died in Wellington Hospital about two hours after the car her husband, Thomas, was driving was in a head-on collision with another car on State Highway 1 north of Peka Peka on Sunday.

Mr Priestley, 80, and the 25-year-old southbound driver, Helen Milne, of Wellington, died at the scene.

Mrs Priestley's oldest son, David, said his mother loved her job as a lift attendant at Kirkcaldie & Stains. She held the job for more than 20 years, retiring at the age of 65, 12 years ago.

"She looked forward to work every day. People shopped there every week and she knew most of them by their first names."

Her daughter, Donna Carmichael, said customers were often so busy chatting to her that they missed their floor.

Mrs Carmichael described her mother "as one of the sweetest angels" and her father as "hard as nails but soft as butter".

"Even though he used to make out he hated kids, when he retired he used to dress up as Father Christmas for kindergartens and provide his own lollies," David Priestley said.

He said he felt huge sympathy for Miss Milne's family. "They must be going through worse than us. Dad was 80, he had lived his life ..."

His parents had been married for 56 years. Their funeral will be on Thursday.