In lieu of flowers, the family kindly asks that you consider a donation to Rise Above Capital Region Cancer Relief, who support families across the region through a cancer diagnosis.
Refreshments to follow the service
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Helen Mary "Lanie" Haslam (née Wessell)
Born 1942, Blackheath, NSW, passed away 2026, Sutton. Lanie was the eldest of seven children to Arthur and Moya Wessell. Growing up in a resilient railway family that sometimes lived in tents, she developed a fierce, independent spirit. After completing her schooling in Griffith, she moved to Sydney, where she became a double-certificate nurse, graduating in general nursing from Prince Henry Hospital (1964) and Midwifery from Royal Prince Alfred (1966).
In late 1964, while visiting family (her father was then the station master) in Bourke, she met Wayne, a newly graduated civil engineer. Their chance meeting in a Bourke street sparked a beautiful, 62-year love story. After an independent three-year stint nursing in the UK, France, and Scandinavia, she returned to Australia. She and Wayne were married in 1970.
Lanie’s life was defined by adventure and care. After the birth of their first son, Damian, (1972) the family spent six years in Thailand (where their second son, Justin, was born (1976) and time in Edinburgh and the Philippines. In 1984, the family returned to Australia, eventually building their forever home in 2001 at Sutton, NSW, where they grew truffles at Bluefrog Farm. Lanie poured her heart into the design and decoration of this home.
A quiet, loving person, Lanie was a devoted wife, mother, aunt, grandmother, and nurse. She possessed boundless creative talents, including sketching, painting, sculpting, bookbinding, leatherwork, sewing, knitting, cross-stitch, and doll making. Though her prolific artistic output was sadly restricted over the past decade by macular degeneration, and she was later diagnosed with oesophageal cancer, her kindness and creativity touched more lives than she ever knew.
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