Stroke preceded fall onto heater

An elderly Christchurch woman had a massive stroke before falling on a bar heater and being severely burned.

Margaret Pugh, 82, died last Saturday after falling at her Avonhead home.

Daughter Jane Earl, of Prebbleton, was told by doctors that the stroke alone was not survivable.

Deputy chief fire officer David Burford said Pugh had serious burns to the lower part of her body.

Pugh's funeral was held on Thursday and the family is still coming to terms with her death.

"On Friday night [last week] she rang us," Earl said.

"She'd been in the garden, she was bright and happy and she'd been busy making plans for Christmas.

She was full of life and the future, basically, and then to have this on Saturday was a huge shock."

Earl said the birth of Pugh's first grandchild, Earl and partner Dean Longstaffe's son Hamish, had been a thrill.

"He became the absolute light of her life."

Before moving to Avonhead, the "fiercely independent" Pugh, a former arts and crafts teacher, spent decades in North Canterbury – at Glasnevin in Amberley and The Conway on the Inland Road, between Waiau and Kaikoura.

"She loved family, animals and was a very caring person, very giving," Earl said.

Although having a fire alarm linked to her security system did not save her mother's life, Earl said it saved the house from being burnt down and prevented damage to neighbouring properties.

- © Fairfax NZ News