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Note: Early childhood was difficult. At the age of eight Muriel's mother Elizabeth died of breast cancer. She came to New Zealand with her father and two older sisters,Vide, and Elsie arriving in Wellington. Vide had contracted scarlet fever and was quarranteened aboard the ship for six weeks. She later left for Hamilton. William took Elsie a Muriel to Auckland where on arrival walked all the way from the station to Dominion road. Here they attended Mt Eden school. Due to William's neglect and ill treatment of the girls they were put on an orphanage in 1912. Edie arrived from England the same year to remove the girls and took them to Wellington to care for them. Muriel was artistically talented and was employed first by Crown Studios for Photography work and became very skilled at colour tinting photographs as was the practice at the time. She next worked for Kirkaldies and Stains where she made and decorated lampshades for sale, and she continued with this work at home after her first child Noel was born . She taught herself to sew and made most of her children's clothes and was very talented at making artificial flowers with crepe paper and a great range of other handcraft skills. It is believed that she aquired these talents from her mother Elizabeth who was listed as seemstresses in the 1901 census.
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