Gravestone for Mabel, a Victorian maid

1893; Martin and Caroline Lush return to Auckland after Martin’s long illness. Martin has been very sick for 4 years and is now in his last weeks. They are staying with Martin’s brother Edward in Newton. One night in May, a fire breaks out in the early hours of the morning at Edward's house. Caroline’s maid, 19-year-old Mabel Helander is accused, arrested by police and brought into custody. Mabel ends up at home on bail but distraught at her experiences and at the thought of being tried, commits suicide by ingesting phosphorous matches. She dies in hospital June 13.

Mabel’s mother Ellen, whose husband Charles was lost at sea just the year before, finds a suicide letter from Mabel hidden in a prayer book:

"[...] If I should ever have a tombstone, put hymn No. 349 on it. Dear mother, ask Alice to forgive me. I must now say good-bye to all I love. Hoping you will forgive me; good-bye.—Yours for ever, Mabel Helander"

After researching Mabel's burial records, I found she was buried at Purewa but that the plot is empty. It is likely Ellen didn't have enough money for a stone grave marker, so Mabel would have just had a wooden cross which has since rotted away.

Her plot was always used for the burial of an infant, Alice McKenzie in 1902.

I would like to raise enough money (Purewa cemetery has indicated it is $3330 for a bronze plaque and installation, plus the covering of Givealittle's fees ($166)) to mark Mabel's (and Alice's) grave site.