Michael Lulich served with her on the Petone Community Board and was impressed by her work ethic. “She was a strong independent woman who dedicated her life to nursing and the community.”
Vera Ellen with Lieutenant Colonel Maree Sheard, then director of nursing services for the Defence Force, when Ellen received the New Zealand Defence Service Medal for non-operational service, at Parliament House in 2011. Her mother, Edna, came to New Zealand on a scheme to bring young women to the colonies, and married John Thomas Jabez Ellen. Ellen was born in the Te Puni Street Nursing Home, Petone. Life was tough for her family in the Depression, and she would later talk about the help received from the Salvation Army.