My dear Jeremy,
There were a number of South Africans who had taken refuge in Swaziland. They felt threatened by the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950.
I believe one such person was Malcolm Sobey, a student, and now teaching at Waterford. He lived in one of the other rondavels behind us. The Portuguese builder and his wife and sometimes their daughter also lived there at different times. They shared a bathroom which was the other half of our rondavel bathroom. One awful day the daughter went to use the bathroom and found Malcolm unconscious in the bath. The gas water heater had produced carbon monoxide. Your father and some boys put him in the landrover and sped down to the hospital. The jolting down the mountain must have helped him to regain consciousness. He opened his eyes as they arrived at the hospital and calmly said: 'Forgive the conventional question, but where am I?' It was a great relief to us all to hear him speak but it did take him a while to recover completely.
A grass fire started just above the stables. I tried, with the help of the old gardener and probably with you on my hip to beat it out. The flames kept jumping beyond me. Finally I called the school out as it raced up the mountain side. Christopher has a painting of the scene done by Bob Roseveare.
Imagine my horror the day I found a snake swimming in the bath. Tim and Peter Richardson had caught it and decided it was a water snake but I am not sure that the snake agreed with them - it seemed quite angry. I was quite hysterical when Tim showed me a bite mark on his hand. Pedro Guedes the so-called snake 'expert' did not help when he said Tim's hand was swelling. I sat up late into the night watching but it was no worse in the morning.
Pop, my father' and Iverna who was out from Kenya came to visit. I had not seen Iverna , my mother's sister, for many years. Other friends also visited like the van Ghents who were with us in Abercorn.
We spent a weekend in Lourenco Marques, now Maputo. Daddy was really excited to see the place where he was born. We lunched with the Guedes family.
After this trip I had a miscarriage which was a big shock. Auntie Joyce came from Johannesburg to help but I was soon well again. During the school holidays we traveled down to the North Coast of Natal to Umshlanga Rocks. It was good to be camping by the sea. On the way back to Mbabane we passed through St Lucia Bay.
Jill, Celia and Tim caught the measles each in turn and finally you were so ill you spent some days in hospital, you couldn't even walk when you cam home - only crawled. Margaret Schuster nursed you and became a good friend. I am still in contact with her. She now lives in Canada.
Beside the rondavels was a swimming pool used by us and the boys. Here we had braais and Christopher would bring his friends from school. The stream came down from the mountain and above it was a green belt of trees and bushes. Celia called this her 'Secret Garden'. When she was cross she would go there with horse cubes for sustenance in her pocket.
That Christmas Michael revved up the engine of the landrover loudly at the door. He dressed in my red dressing gown and came 'Ho Ho Hoing' to where the children were pretending to be asleep in their beds and deposited stockings for each one at the end of their beds
Our Zambian leave was over so we no long had an income. Dad's pay at the school was very little. An entry in his diary says; 'Overdrawn'. So the time had come (11th May) to leave Waterford and seek pastures new.
We loaded the caravan, packed our goods and chattels, which included the piano, put the horses on the train and with two dogs carefully drove down the pass as the gravel road was slippery. Christopher drove the little Fiat.
Grahamstown and Marble Halls here we come.
That is another story.......
Love you,
Mum