Tickled pink: "We had a Pink Lady man once; he'd wear a pink shirt," said Blacktown Hospital's longest-serving Pink Lady, Marcia Wiggins. Picture: Carlos Furtado
WHAT young girl didn't want to be one of the Pink Ladies after seeing Grease?
Marcia Wiggins is different kind of Pink Lady, also easily recognisable by her pink uniform, but what she finds cool is helping patients at Blacktown Hospital.
"They smile at you and you're rewarded straight away," Mrs Wiggins said.
She joined the Blacktown Hospital Pink Ladies Service on July 21, 1969, and turns up at the hospital — which is a short stroll from home — every Wednesday at 7am to help for five hours.
She has never had a sick day.
"Mum has never taken time out for a holiday, as it would have interfered with Pink Ladies — now that's dedication," said daughter-in-law, Barbara Wiggins.
"I just want to be like her when I'm 86."
Her yen for helping began when Mrs Wiggins was a small child.
"Being a farmer's daughter, I'd set the table for eight, peg the clothes for eight," she said.
"As soon as school started, I helped in the canteen and when I was 10 I joined the Junior Red Cross.
"I wanted to be a nurse — my father's five sisters were nurses and my mum's father was a doctor — but mum got sick and we went to war, so I looked after the farm.
"I always played dolls and I had sick ones and ones with patches."
Being a Pink Lady was the next best thing to being a nurse, so when she saw an ad for Pink Ladies she quickly signed up.
"I love doing it. I'm just sorry when the day's over," Mrs Wiggins said.
In the early days, Mrs Wiggins knitted garment sets for the premature babies, washed and combed patient's hair and even shopped for the patients as there was no kiosk in the hospital.