REDEEMED PIONEER

  This is one of my favourite pictures of 7-year-old Jessica performing the song I LOVE YOU, LORD on the dining room table to an audience of friends and family.    She called it the EAR SONG after the words in the lyrics LET IT BE A SWEET, SWEET SOUND IN YOUR EAR. In the early hours of Friday 26 November 1999, 35 days before Y2K, a 27-year-old mother recognises the signs of early labour.    She doesn’t raise alarm about it, because her C-section is scheduled for noon on that same day, at 38 weeks gestation.    This precious little bundle of joy is baby number four, the one destined to complete her family of six.    None of the antenatal ultrasound scans could confirm, without reasonable doubt, the new baby’s gender.    If she gives birth to ALEXANDER AMADEUS, then she will have three boys and a girl, but if she gives birth to JESSICA, then she will have two boys and two girls.    At exactly 13:13 JESSICA made her way into ...

This reflection is a letter addressed to my granddaughter, Emily Hay, who recently took part in POCAHONTAS2024 presented by  Elna van der Walt School of Ballet . To my dearest beloved Boo Thank you so very much for filling my heart to overflow with the delight of unconditional love and humble gratitude.    I am so proud of you for your beautiful ballet performance and I am so profoundly grateful to be your Nana.    In my eyes you were not only the prettiest butterfly, but the prettiest ballerina on stage.    This was also exactly what your  OumagrootjieMakkie  and  OumaDalene,  who travelled all the way from Ladysmith for the show, expressed to me afterwards.    I can only hope and pray that every ballerina in the show had at least one Nana/Granny/ Ouma / Oumagrootjie  in the audience feeling the same way about them as the three of us did about you.    You are only four years old and this performance was you...

  WE REGRET TO INFORM YOU THAT…. …your application was unsuccessful …your results did not meet the requirements …your proposal was not selected …your submission was not accepted …we have decided to decline the opportunity to work with you …we are unable to offer you admission …we are unable to accommodate your request to attend I have no doubt that the longer you have lived on this side of eternity, the better acquainted you are with the above-mentioned statements.    The disappointment of learning that you have been turned down for something which you have set your hope and heart on can, undoubtedly, cause you a great deal of pain.    While it is true and commendable that some organisations make every effort to show kindness and courtesy in the careful wording of their rejection letters to applicants, it is also equally true that others are either unceremoniously blunt or blatantly unresponsive.    While the blow from a respectfully worded rejection l...