By MALUM NALU
The late Elaine Rohrlach of Ampo in Lae, who passed away last October, was a remarkable woman who was well respected for her work with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG.
She was the wife of my good friends Lester Rohrlach and sons Bruce and Allan.
We kids who grew up around Butibam, Ampo and Hunter areas in the 70s, 80s and 90s know the Rohrlach familly very well.
They were very much involved in Lutheran missionary work.
Bruce and my elder brother, David, went to school at Lae International High School and he and brother, Allan, hung around with us Butibam kids.
Allan and I were confirmed at Resurrection Lutheran Church in 7th Street, Lae, in 1983.
Lester is a true ‘Mangi Morobe’, being born in Finschhafen before World War II, moved to Australia, and then came back after the war where he spent many years in development work for the church.
Thank you Elaine, for your contributions to Lae, Morobe and Papua New Guinea.
Here is her eulogy delivered by son Bruce:
Elaine Rohrlach
“Her life in a small nutshell”
Elaine Ann Rohrlach was born at Ramsgate in Sydney on the 3rd of March 1939, five months before the beginning of WWII. She was the second girl and fourth child to Mavis Irene (nee Smith) and Morton McIntyre. In time, another sister and two more brothers were born, so she was the middle of seven children. Her first six years were during WWII that had a profound effect on most nations and Australia. She did not remember much of that time, but she distinctly remembered her mother Mavis needing coupons to purchase butter.
Elaine grew up not really knowing her father, as he travelled for work and was rarely home, though her three older siblings had a few recollections of him. Elaine’s mother died at 42 years of age in 1952, leaving seven children between six and 20 years of age without a father to look after them. Elaine, aged 13, and her three younger siblings, were taken to live with Uncles and Aunties around Melbourne while the eldest three siblings remained in Sydney.
Having competed two years of high school, she found work at the Atlas Insurance Company offices in Collins Street, Melbourne. Four years later she transferred to their Sydney office at age 20. After a year she left them to work at the Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Company for five years. She boarded with her elder married sister Maree and Maree’s husband John and their little son at Stanmore.
Soon after in 1959, her younger sister Barbara introduced her to Lester, who on meeting her seemed to think that Elaine was far too young to be of interest, so slight and dainty was Elaine. It didn’t take Lester long to discover that she was indeed delightfully mature, a little older than he, and very interesting. There began a near six-year courtship of wonderful times. She had been a baptised Methodist. During that time, she was confirmed in the Lutheran faith. They were married at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Valentine Street, Sydney by Pastor Chris Stolz on 6th February 1965.
Their son Bruce was born late that year on 20th of November, and 13 months later they answered a call to join the staff of Lutheran Mission New Guinea, and began 36+ years of dedication of their working lives for the betterment of the people of PNG. They spent two-and-a-half years living at Madang and then 34 years at the Lutheran Mission church headquarters in Lae.
Due to an early kidney issue, Elaine was urged by the medical specialists not to have a second pregnancy, and so it was during their first Leave (or furlough) that in January 1969 they adopted their second son Alan, then just three weeks old. These two beautiful young boys have been their pride and joy ever since.
Lester was employed as builder, designer and draftsman, estimator, and project coordinator, and during the first years Elaine did volunteer work because missionary’s wives were not allowed to find paid employment, they were expected by the overseas Mission Boards to give all of their out-of-family time to support husband and the people, depending on their abilities and skills.
They lived in the delightful tropical town of Madang for two-and-a-half years, then moved to the Lutheran Mission’s headquarters at Lae where Lester supervised the building of the Martin Luther Seminary, and where they continued their sojourn of service for another 34 years.
• For many years Elaine taught Religious Instruction in local primary schools and also Sunday School in her congregation.
• She did the accounting for Luta Air, the Lutheran Aviation Department.
• She worked in the Christian Bookshop in Lae, and also managed a small books and stationery stall at Ampo, the Mission headquarters, in the afternoons.
By this time the Australian Overseas Mission Board had recognised that it was cheaper for them to budget a salary for missionary’s wives who worked, than to recruit and salary a separate person and send them to PNG. So, our family was blessed to be assisted in this small way for sacrifices that spouses made in the mission field.
• Around 1972 the Balob Teachers College of around 200 students lost their treasurer. Elaine offered to work as their part-time treasurer (four hours per day) until a full-time treasurer could be found. By early 1982 (10 years later) she was still managing all that work. Around that time a National lady was employed to be trained by Elaine as her replacement.
• During the following 17 years, Elaine served from Lae as Secretary and Treasurer for the New Guinea Coordinating Committee, comprised of the Overseas Missions department directors of those churches (Australia, North America, Canada and three Lutheran church organizations in Germany) that were sending called staff and support to the ELC-PNG.
• Additionally, for most of that time she administered the churches Vehicles Loan Scheme whereby staff in need of a vehicle for their work were assisted with the purchase and running cost reimbursements. This was quite a responsibility involving dozens of vehicles.
• One of her other responsibilities was handling bookings for two small pool buses kept at Ampo (the church headquarters) for use by all missionary families living on outstation missions around the remote parts of the country and other centers.
• She also supervised the accounting books of the always-busy Ampo Guest House, and also sat on their management committee.
• In October 1999, she was assigned as the Executive Officer in the Bishop’s department as Administrative Secretary for overseas staff affairs working for the ELC-PNG. Her responsibilities were wide and essential. They required familiarity with working in PNG, how ELC-PNG operates, and to be
cognisant of many Government regulations. She was responsible for procuring Work Permits and work permit renewals for mission staff. She arranged air travel for Expatriate staff as needed. She also administered the quarterly outstation funds for general upkeep of mission stations.
These activities were in liaison between the leadership of ELC-PNG and the several overseas ‘sending churches’ so she needed familiarity with all overseas staff as well as most of the senior National Church staff.
Consequently, Elaine was continually working alongside a wide range of personalities and nationalities, so it goes without saying that Elaine needed to be patient, sympathetic and understanding, yet unswerving and firm where needed. She was always highly respected by all whom she dealt with. Some people who came to Lae would do their business, have their lunch, and then think it’s the best time to “see Elaine” by catching her at home before the offices opened again post lunch break, just when she needed a little bit of a kip from the tropical heat. During that time, she trained Ruth Marsipal, a New Guinean lady as her understudy.
Whilst there are so many memories that could be recounted – Elaine played a lot of social and competitive tennis in Lae over our years in New Guinea, and Saturday afternoons were a great time for tennis and courtside socialisation with close friends work colleagues. She also loved fishing with Lester, and many weekends were spent on the waters of the Huon Gulf in our boat, or friend’s boats, catching jew-fish, red-emperor and various other tropical fish for the plate. She even held a World Fishing Record for a time.
From my brother Alan and my perspective, one of countless joys that Mum gave us were the many freedoms that we had growing up in PNG at that time. While Mum could be firm when needed, her willingness to allow us to live and learn, and to run free, is now in our later lives so appreciated for the wonderful childhood that we feel privileged to have had as third culture kids.
Some of our most cherished times with Mum where when we were on annual holidays in Finschhafen where our father was born.
The years from the mid 1980’s added times of anxiety and feelings of insecurity due to the ever-mounting incidents of physical crime in the major town centers.
Her last year in Papua New Guinea was a hard and worrying one for health reasons. At the time of her leaving PNG at the end of 2002, she was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure while in Brisbane. It was to her dismay and intense sadness that, on specialist’s advise, she did not have the opportunity to return to PNG, even for a week, to say good-by to all of the people that she had been working with over the prior four decades, nor even to her last home of 34 years in Lae.
In retirement Elaine and Lester moved to Adelaide where the Queen Elizabeth Hospital was running the country’s second-busiest hospital for renal care and kidney transplants.
Life and retirement in Australia came to be a long period of slowly declining health and many hospitalisations between periods of better but restricted activities and occasional interstate travel to visit close relatives.
Following six years of dialysis, Elaine received a kidney transplant in 2009 at age 71. The necessity to live with daily dosages of immunosuppressive drugs introduced diabetes and a range of hospitalisations including two open chest surgeries and heart valve replacement, lymphoma and chemotherapy, eye damage, a pace-maker and lesser but periodic difficulties. These are times that truly tests one’s fortitude and faith.
During the two years of living in Church staff holiday units at Henley Beach, 15 years in her retirement home at Valley View and then at the Lutheran Retirement Village at Hope Valley since late 2019, Elaine was blessed by many wonderful family events, including the marriage of son Bruce to Elsa and three new grandchildren Karen,Gianina and John, the growing into adulthood of grand-daughters Renee and Louise, the birth of granddaughter Ella to Alan and Jennifer, and the birth of her first great grand-daughter Sophia to Louise and Glen, whom Elaine was blessed to hold in her last days.
Whilst Elaine’s last 10 days at RAH were very difficult, she fought on, not only with courage, but also with that calmness of mind that comes with the sure knowledge of the love and rich inheritance that awaits her in Christ. Many of her words in her last days were spent reassuring her immediate family, urging them not to cry, to only feel sad for a time, but then to go on living and loving life.
Close this eulogy with three short verses:
Matthew 5:4
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Psalm 34:18
The Lord is close to the broken-hearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.
John 14:1-3
Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.