This morning I woke at about 6am, but only got up around 9am! I kept checking my email (on my cell phone) to see if there was any urgent work and there wasn’t so we had a very late morning. It was great. I worked, went to gym, did some shopping and am home.
Today is 25th June and on this day I remember my older brother Arnold. He was born on this day in 1960. Today would have been his 59th birthday. He passed away almost 12 years ago at the age of 47 and he is greatly missed. Thank you Jesus for your salvation. In this picture, Julian is standing. Arnold is sitting. David in Julian’s arms. Stacey sitting on Arnold’s knee. This was Christmas 1991.
Blessed with memories.
Nugget from my journey. Stacey was born at Paarl Hospital on Friday 4th December 1987. We only went home the following Wednesday – five nights in hospital! Home was a little cottage on a farm. We lived at Farm Leliefontein. By the time we moved into the cottage at the start of 1987, some massive changes had happened. The farm had been split. A chunk of it had been sold for the construction of the Hugenot Tunnel. We lived on the Boarding Kennels side. In the satellite pic below, our little cottage was just under the The of “The Battle Bunker”. It wasn’t called the Battle Bunker in those days. The farm was owned by the Humby family. It was a citrus farm but also had the dog kennels back in those days. Mrs. Humby told us we would be sure to have a boy as no girls had ever been conceived on the farm. We broke that record.
When I was pregnant with Stacey I loved eating the fruit straight off the trees. They were called Tangelos and were a hybrid of a tangerine and a grapefruit. They were really sour but had a craving for them so they really hit the spot. The other craving I had when I was pregnant with Stacey was licorice. I had to have my daily fix, so I would drive down to the petrol station at the bottom of the hill and buy a strip from the cafe.
For the whole time we were on the farm, the construction of the new N1 unfolded alongside the farm. Sometimes we would go walking along the dirt road marvelling at what they were doing. In March 1988, when Stacey was three months old, we drove to East London (towing a caravan). We drove over Du Toit’s Kloof Pass (R101 in the map) to get to the other side of the mountain. On our return, the Tunnel had been opened and we drove right through. On that trip to East London, we were involved in an unexpected incident.
We left later in the day and by the time we had gone over the mountain, passed through Worcester and Robertson, darkness had fallen. We were driving in a Datsun Bakkie, just big enough to tow our small caravan. In those days baby car seats weren’t compulsory. Stacey was three months old and in my arms. She was sleeping. We had bought with us a few books on cassette and we were listening to one of them – it was the Secret Cases of Sherlock Holmes and it had our attention. Naturally, towing a caravan, we couldn’t go too fast. With our lights on, we trundled along the road to Ashton. As we entered it, there were a number of cars coming towards us with their lights on. They completely blinded us to what was in the road. With the times as they were, some of the locals had put massive, (double the size of footballs), rocks in our path. With the lights of an oncoming vehicle, we just didn’t see them. The car passed and then we suddenly saw these massive rocks on the road. Mike swerved but it was too late to miss them and they took out the left caravan tyre and one of our car tyres. We ended up on the wrong side of the road but fortunately in the yellow line with two flat tyres. We were at a stand still. We were so grateful none of us were injured. I don’t even think Stacey woke up. Mike ran across the road to a house and the kind gentleman allowed him to phone the police (no cell phones in 1988 of course). The police came and helped us change the tyres. Then we slowly hobbled into the town and parked outside the Ashton Police station, where we spent the night in our caravan. We used the police station bathroom which was helpful. In the morning, the main Ashton service station assisted us in doing a proper repair and we were eventually on our way again, travelling the R60 which would take us to the N2. Unbeknownst to us, 30 years later, the tiny babe in my arms would travel that very road in the dead of night to get her to hospital to give birth to her own daughter. You just never know what is ahead!
God is gracious!
Psalm 18:48
You hold me safe beyond the reach of my enemies; You save me from violent opponents.
Amen. That’s what He did.
These are the days.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂
Gym:
- I walked for 35 minutes to try to get some steps in. (I’ve done 7800)
- Did an hour of Pilates
Braces:
Day 224