Iona Cotton Eulogy
By Ivan Johnstone. Iona passed away on 16 February 2025 at the age of 73.
The first time I got to know Iona as my sister was when she was 10 years old and I was 12. Before then, I knew that I had two sisters, Barbara and Iona, who lived with the Price family. My brothers and I had met our sisters on a few brief occasions before they joined our Malcolm household. Ron Malcolm had become our foster parent some five years earlier.
When Barbara and Iona first arrived at 13 Ardmore Drive by the Oval in Dunedin, Iona wanted to play knuckle bones with me, a game of dexterity played with a number of small objects that are thrown up and caught again. I wasn’t so keen on doing that. I regarded knuckle bones as being a girly game, but Iona insisted I play with her not just once, but many times. Iona also taught me the game of knuckles which wasn’t quite so girly. Two opponents press their knuckles firmly against each other’s knuckles and take turns at striking the top of their opponents wrist before they had a chance to pull their hand back. It really stings if you lose and you miss a turn to do the same to your opponent.
Because Iona and I were closer in age than my two older brothers, we shared many activities together. I taught Iona how to high jump by setting up two posts and a rail on the Oval outside our home and how to walk using stilts. Iona and I used to go roller skating on Saturdays on a regular basis. Back then, we walked from the Oval to the St Kilda skating rink, a journey of some miles. Iona joined the Kiwi Swimming Club alongside me and my brothers and soon became a medallist at the Otago Swimming Champs in her age group for backstroke. On one occasion, she beat Beryl Boberg, an Otago Champion. At Bayfield High School, Iona was the captain of the school’s basketball team.
When Iona was about 14, she left the Malcolm household under unfortunate circumstances and Mrs Cunningham became her new foster parent. Contact with Iona became more difficult when we no longer lived in the same household, but nonetheless we maintained contact with each other as we grew up to become adults. My wife Pam and I lived in Cumberland Street near the Otago University in the early 1970s. We had a fountain 12 x 12 stereo system and Iona joined us and our friends on Friday nights for an LP session. LPs are long playing records for those who have played only CDs. Pam and I were invited to Iona’s parties and what was striking to me was that all her friends were friendly and decent caring people. The same applied to Iona. Pam and I shifted to Auckland with our daughter and son in 1975 and a few years later Iona stayed with us for a few days before flying to the United States where she lived for a number of years. We exchanged letters while Iona was overseas.
A funeral is time for a celebration of one’s life and Iona has much to celebrate. While in the United States, Iona partially completed a degree course and, in doing so, developed a keen interest in caring for young teenagers and adults who were mentally and emotionally challenged. This became a decades long career for Iona in Christchurch after she married Grant and gave birth to their son Michael. Iona was totally dedicated to her profession well beyond the call of duty and she was held in high regard and loved by those she cared for. I have always admired Iona for her courage and tenacity during difficult times.
Iona, I love you and I miss you. You will be forever on my mind. May you now rest in peace.