6th November 2008 - Your great-grandmother

Hello little Em,
I was cleaning the spare room this morning - I am doing the whole house, one room a day - and happened to look at the photograph of my Mom on the wall.
I said to her, "Hey Mom, what do you think about Emily Ann?" She is smiling in the photo and I know that she would have loved you - very much. It gave me a lump in my throat to think that she will never know you or hold you.
Let me tell you a bit about your Great-grandmother.
She was born on 1st August 1921 - the 2nd youngest of five children - and lived most of her childhood outside Dundee on a farm called 'Dawn'.
Her parents named her Jacomina Magritha Johanna Moolman (quite a mouthful hey?) Her family called her Mina but later on in life she became known as May. Your Dad and uncle Greg called her Gogo-May.
The other children were - in order of age - Alida (Tannie Ali), Hansie, Thys and Wessel. The first daughter in all the families were given the name Alida (which was her mother's name). Patty's second name is Alida and Oom Thys' oldest girl is Alida.
I never met Wessel because he died when I was 17. I went to the funeral in Johannesburg with my mother and that was the first time I'd been on an aeroplane. Passenger air travel was still young in 1964 - the first jet airliner, the Boeing 707, was only introduced 5 years earlier in 1959. So, it was very exciting for me to fly on an aeroplane.
Tannie Alie was married to Piet Lombard. They couldn't have children but they adopted Oom Piet's nephew, Leon.
Aunty Hansie married a Van Wyk and they had three children, two girls and a boy but the boy, Boetie, died when he was child. I think he was what they used to call a 'Blue Baby' - he didn't get enough oxygen to the heart. The first operation to correct this was only done in 1944 - too late for poor Boetie.
Thys had 5 children but I have only met three of them - Alida, Hannetjie and Marina. I think the other two are boys.
May married Albert Dodgen, and had Patty (1943) and me (1947). He had been married before and had a son from that marriage. We never saw him when we were children. He was older than us and he stayed with his mother who wouldn't have anything to do with Albert. May and Albert divorced and May remarried in 1957. In 1958 my young half-brother (your uncle Jeff) was born. May's 2nd husband Les Leaver, my step-father, died 3 weeks before Greg was born in May 1975.
May was a wonderful person. She had to work hard all her life and did her best to raise Patty and me when she was left on her own after Albert left. She doted on her grandchildren and loved your father very much. I think she would have been tickled pink to have seen him with his own daughter!
She was artistic and loved to dance - I think Patty gets that from her, although Albert was a musician so he must've been artistic too. She loved walking (perhaps I got that from her) and played bowls until her health deteriorated. She loved to cook for her family (now Patty has taken over that role) and we went to her every Sunday for years.
I really miss my mother. When Mark was at school I visited her four times a week and near the end, every day. When she became almost housebound, we had time to speak about a lot of things and there was no unfinished business between us. It is good to have that kind of relationship with the people close to you. Once they have gone its too late to say the things you wanted to say.
I wish you could have known her Em. She raised two girls so I'm sure you and she would have got on well.
Next time I'll tell you about your other Great-grandmother, Granny Annie (Gumpy's mother).
Take care little Em,
Love you lots,
Silly