Merilyn Clifton

Merilyn was the Manager of the Weston Creek Family Day Care Scheme for many years. She was passionate about the well being of children and cared deeply about people. Working with children was her great delight and she lived to work and make life better for children and their families.

Merilyn was always ready to help no matter how hard the problem was. If someone was in need Merilyn would move heaven and earth to get some assistance.

Her standards were high and her staff were required to work hard, not waste a minute which could be spent on providing better services for children and enjoy their work as much as she did. The staff who worked with her caught her enthusiasm and indeed loved their jobs as she did.

Not only did Merilyn serve the community, she also provided a great deal of support for her own family and particularly to her grand daughter with special needs. Such was Merilyn’s devotion to others that she may have neglected to relax enough to look after herself.

She died an untimely death from a brain tumour well before she was ready to give up her work. In fact she retained her enthusiasm for the welfare of children right up till she could not physically work any longer.

Not only did she care for children she was also passionate about child care workers, their conditions and their employment. She lived to see the employment of family day care workers under the Family Day Care Award and she would have loved to see them paid better and have better training opportunities.

Merrilyn left a legacy to establish a fund to provide home based child care workers with quality training opportunities.