Barbara Francis came to Wellington in 1956 to study at the Teachers’ Training College. She met Nessie Moncrieff through the Student Christian Movement (SCM), and only later discovered she was in fact Agnes Moncrieff. In 1959, as an SCM travelling secretary, she boarded with Nessie in her Wellington home, and their friendship continued until Nessie’s death. Barbara worked as a teacher and raised her family in Christchurch, returning to live in Wellington in 2005. It was then she learned that Nessie’s letters from China were in the Alexander Turnbull Library and she began typing up and assembling them so that Nessie’s story could be shared.
