There hasn’t been a day where Noeline Dillimore didn’t want to go to work.
The owner of the homewares, furnishings and floorings store, Dillimores, in the heart of Waihī township, said it was a lovely place to go to everyday.
“We’ve had wonderful staff and that’s made every day a joy. There’s not a day that I don’t want to come to work. It’s almost like home away from home,” Noeline told The Profile.
“My staff have been so wonderful over the years… I can’t thank them enough.”
Her passion for the world of homewares and interiors was evident, as well as her and the team’s commitment to trust their gut.
“We’ve never put anything in here because it was cheap or high fashion. We’ve put in what we liked,” she said.
“We’ve always had good feedback from people saying they like our taste.”
It’s what makes things difficult for Noeline as she prepares to close the doors to the place she’s treasured being part of since the early 1970s alongside late husband Rex Dillimore.
“I’m really going to miss it and I’m going to miss the people.
“I’ve got a 94-year-old guy that still calls in here, [he] comes in here for a cup of coffee on his scooter”.
The decision to close the business came down to two things: “it’s age that has crept up on all of us. I’m in my 80s”, and her staff’s desires to travel, she said.
Even though Dillimores operated as a homewares, furnishings and floorings store – it began in 1939 when Claude Dillimore and Dave Seath formed a partnership: Seath & Dillimore – Cabinet Makers and Funeral Directors.
“They used to send furniture all over the country. They made roll-top desks and radiograms and things like that,” she said.
In addition to creating pieces of furniture, the partners had a significant role in the community to help families who experienced grief and loss. Noeline showed The Profile funeral records that dated back to the earlier days, which offered a glimpse into the past – some funerals at the time cost just 30 pounds, she said.
“It was probably a lot in those days. But they’d travel to pick up the bodies and that sort of thing, so all that expense went on it.”
But that’s not the only thing the store still holds from the early days.
“We’ve actually still got a couple of caskets [urns] here of ashes that were left over, that were never collected. They’re part and parcel with the property,” she said.
“We have no idea who they are, but they’ve been here [and] treated with the utmost respect. “They’re still in their containers on the shelf.”
The new owner set to buy the building was happy to house the ashes, Noeline said.
“If it [the building] had been demolished, that would have been a big decision for me to have to make. But seeing that we’ve sold it on, that really gives me a lot of comfort.”
The furniture factory and funeral business separated from the store in the 1950s – which is when Seath & Dillimores split to become CC Dillimore & Co.
Noeline said that’s when Claude kept the store and Dave took on the furniture factory and funeral business. It was the early 1960s when Claude’s son, Rex Dillimore, joined his father in the store as a carpet layer, and in the same decade Noeline also married Rex, she said. “I worked in the bank here for probably about seven years and then I came into the business.”
She joined Rex in the store in the early 1970s and said she’s been there ever since.
“It’s a lovely medium to be in. You meet these lovely people.”
The store was led by Rex and Noeline for many years until Rex’s unexpected passing in 2015, she said. “We had a great life together, and I couldn’t have been in anything better.” The couple had three children, and five grandchildren, Noeline said.
An official close date for the store was set for October 31, she said, “[it’s] gotta come to an end sooner or later.”
Even though Noeline was set to start on a different path soon, there was a significant connection to the new owners of the building, Annoushka and Brian Callaghan.
There was a “big tie up with history” as the new owner was connected to the Seath family, she said. “So there’s still this real web of Waihī in the mix. It’s lovely for me because I don’t feel like I’m abandoning the property.
“And there was no way I wanted someone from Auckland to come down and buy it and put their stamp on it, change the name and everything else,” she said.
“So the history is still remaining with the building, with the business,” she said.
“It makes me feel happy that they’ll be carrying on. It actually was quite an emotional day when we went to the auction. It was quite emotional for them and for us.”
Something Noeline looked forward to in the future was the prospect of taking on the Camino Walk, or Camino de Santiago. The Camino is a network of historic pilgrimage routes across Europe that led to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
“I’m not saying how much [I’ll do but] I’m saying I’ll do a chunk of it. That’ll be the big thing for me,” she said.
“I’ve got all of the rest of my life to decide what I want to do.”
-By DAVIDDA HIKATANGATA
