Auntie Patsy 1917-1981?
Patsy was the fourth child of grandparents George and Ottilie, coming between Joan and Brenda. I liked her a lot but did not really see much of her for reasons of history and geography.
Like most of her sisters Patsy followed the well-trodden path after our mother, and worked behind the counter at the Wellington Fruit Growers. She married Piet who became the manager of the Wynberg branch of the company. They lived in the vicinity of the shop and the parental family home all their lives.
Piet
Piet was an affable Cape Afrikaner. He came from the Boland (Uplands) beyond the coastal range of mountains, possibly from the fruit-growing district of Wellington itself. He once recounted to me how as a youth he used to hunt porcupines in the mountains. I know nothing of his family of origin.
I remember him as the good-hearted loving husband and father of a happy family. We last met in 1979 when we shared a few dops of brandy.
He was not only manager of the Wynberg shop but was a pillar of the local social club where I think he had some official status.
The Family
Patsy and Piet had three children, Tricia (a year or two younger than me), then Betty and Christine. There's not much I can say about them. Since the 1950s I saw Patsy once and Piet once. Seen Tricia twice in 40-odd years and her sisters not at all. The girls have grown-up children of their own now.
A few random memories are the best I can do. (If anyone would like to fill me in on important details, I shall do my best to include them.)
- Patsy would still sometimes appear behind the counter when childrearing duties permitted.
- For a period in the late forties Patsy and Piet had a vineyard in Constantia, maybe 15km from Wynberg. But they soon moved back somewhere nearer the shop. I remember them as living in Wynberg, Plumstead and Claremont.
They owned a 1940s Buick similar to the one shown in the pic in which we kids were often taken to the beach. Brother David reminds me that its registration number was CA 66. When Piet was not available it was driven by a coloured man called Meintjies (I think - but don't know what his first name was). He served as chauffeur and general factotem to the household.
- We visited them one Christmas when they were still in a house in Wynberg. All the kids got presents. I was quite young but recall that Patsy gave Piet a Rupert book as a (joke) present because he used to follow Rupert Bear's adventures in the newpaper every evening.
After Patsy died in the early 1980s Piet went to live at his daughter Betty's place. He died a few years later.
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This page was last revised in January 2005