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 na...