The Whakatipu lost a feisty force of nature, who was loyal to a fault, and stubborn to the very end, on Christmas Eve.
Sheree ‘Ree’ Seymour lost her 16-month battle with cancer at Southland Hospice, aged 35, waiting for her best friends, Ebony Webster, Ange Tuhura and Jazzy Kani to arrive before she took her last breath.
Originally from Gore, Ree moved to Queenstown with her sister, Janna, when she was 16 and, aside from a recent two-year stint in Auckland, had called the Whakatipu home.
It was while she was in Auckland, during lockdown, she first detected a lump on her breast, but due to Covid restrictions, didn’t get it looked at till August, 2021.
Initially diagnosed with breast cancer, within weeks it had spread to her lymph nodes, and then her bones, triggering a terminal diagnosis, and an expectation she might have another two years.
‘‘She was sure she was going to go for another 10,’’ Ebony says.
Ebony and Ange say once she received her second diagnosis, they worked to get her back to Queenstown, managing to do so in early December, 2021.
Several fundraisers were held to help with Ree’s living costs, and creating memories with her 16-year-old daughter, including a moko fundraiser and a Wahine Toa lunch at friend Karen Hattaway’s Blue Kanu restaurant — Ree arrived south just in time to attend it.
Despite her diagnosis, Ree refused to let cancer win.
Ebony: ‘‘‘She was so incredibly stubborn.’’
Ange: ‘‘That’s why she lasted so long.’’
Ebony: ‘‘Everyone was like, ‘she’s such a fighter’, and I was like, ‘no, it’s blatant stubbornness; she refuses to let this take over’.’’
The past six months, in particular, had been a rollercoaster for the friends, and their whānau, who had been by Ree’s side almost constantly.
Because of the bone cancer, Ree broke vertebrae in her lower back in June, requiring surgery in Dunedin Hospital for rods to be inserted.
After that, Ree moved in with Ebony’s whānau who nursed her for about six months until the vertebrae in her neck ‘‘crumbled’’ in November.
Another surgery in Dunedin followed, after which Ree stopped breathing and needed an emergency tracheostomy surgery and was placed in an induced coma.
‘‘We’d just left Dunedin, got home, got the call and went back that morning,’’ Ange says.
The women were with her as she was brought out of the coma and watched her fighting spirit shine through until the decision was made to move her to Hospice Southland, in Invercargill, early last month.
Ebony: ‘‘It was the best decision, ever.
‘‘They are literal angels.
‘‘The nurses were beautiful, the space was beautiful … she ended up being more comfortable there.’’
The women spent as much time as they could with Ree while she was there, as well as Ree’s own whānau.
They managed to spend half of Christmas Eve with her and, realising she didn’t have much time left, bolted back to Queenstown to wrap Christmas presents and, along with Jazzy, turned around again to be with her during her final moments.
Ree passed away about two minutes after the women arrived at her bedside, while they were holding her hands.
Ebony: ‘‘It was actually the most beautiful thing she could have done for us.
‘‘After everything, she gave us that moment, which we’ll cherish forever.
‘‘In that last moment, we just saw her literally find peace … you could see it in her face … she just relaxed.’’
After her service at the Lake Hayes Pavilion on December 28, her waka ama crew paddled across Lake Hayes, and past her coffin, leaving Ree’s seat empty, something Ree had planned.
The women believe Ree would want her legacy to be to ‘‘make the most of each day’’.
‘‘Get out there and be active — go on those walks, climb mountains, get in the water,’’ Ebony says.
Ange: ‘‘And take that photo.’’
They are particularly grateful to the Webster and Gibson whānau, the Tuhura whānau and the wider Queenstown whānau for all of their support, of Ree and themselves, over the past 16 months, and indebted to the amazing medical staff in Queenstown, Dunedin and at Hospice Southland.
‘‘We all had so much support from so many amazing people, our families, our works, her friends here, and really heaps of people from the fundraisers that we did … we couldn’t have been there for her the way we were if it hadn’t been for our village,’’ Ebony says.
