Shattered by the news of Rita’s collapse, her mother, Ethel Angus, left immediately for Christchurch. Years later she recalled the shock of seeing her eldest child in Sunnyside: “I just looked at poor Rita and I thought, this is my daughter, we’ve got to get her home.” Ethel was advised that Rita needed to be stabilised and would possibly be ready to be released into her family’s care in January. She was initially diagnosed as suffering from “toxic exhaustive psychosis”.
Sunnyside, first established in the 1860s, was a fortress-like complex of Gothic Revival buildings on the outskirts of Christchurch, beyond Spreydon. Rita was more fortunate than some patients in that she was housed in the hospital’s Reception Home and did not encounter the more seriously disturbed long-term residents. She responded quickly to treatment, and by late October was able to go on afternoon outings with friends Douglas Lilburn and Roy and Joyce Milligan.
In November she was transferred to Hornby Lodge, a gracious two-storey
