A story of one woman’s transformation from a traditional Kiwi ‘housewife’ of the 1950s into a Career Fellow of the New Zealand Medical Research Council. Born in 1926, married at 21, and a mother of two children by 25, Glen Metcalf kept the home fires burning while her husband earned the money for their family. Deciding this was not the life she wanted—and wanting to put her MSc to use—Glen contacted Donald Beaven at the Medical Unit in Princess Margaret Hospital. It was here she metamorphosed into a scientist, gaining her PhD and publishing a number of professional papers. On retirement, Glen became a campaigner on environmental and social issues, going to the Environment Court as an objector to a wind farm in an area of rare limestone bush, and becoming involved with her local Mount Pleasant community following the Christchurch earthquakes.