1967-68 Engagement to Wedding

Starting work:

In January 1967, I started work at NIDR (National Institute for Defence Research) at the CSIR in Pretoria.  As a CSIR bursar, one had no choice and had to go to the 'assigned' institute.  I would have preferred the National Electrical Engineering Institute (NEERI) because I had worked for them during one the university holidays, but as it was part of the compulsory National Service, one had no choice. I had a four year bursary commitment. 

Jenny had started work with Rita Mars Drama School in Cape Town in jan 1966, but it did not work out (she clashed with the owner), so she went to do a year Education Diploma (UED) at the Pietermaritzburg  campus of Natal University. In 1967, she started to teach at Newcastle High School in Northern Natal. She chose Newcastle as she had to teach in Natal to pay off her bursary commitment, and Newcastle was the closest  to Pretoria so that we could see each other as often as possible. 

It was wonderful to be close (or relatively - it was about a 3-4 hour drive), but it was a disaster for Jenny's health.  The school was located a few km away from the Iscor steelworks. With pollution control an unheard of concept, the school was frequently wreathed in smoke and fumes from the steelworks. And if not from the steelworks, then from fellow teachers who smoked freely in the staff common room. 

Jenny's illness:

After repeated lung infections in the course of 1967, Jenny was referred to Florence Nightingale Hospital in Hillbrow, Johannesburg for a bronchogram. In those days before the advent of MRI or CT Scans, it was a horribly invasive procedure that required filling the lungs with an x-ray diagnostic fluid under general anaesthetic.  I visited Jenny and watched her coughing up this muck for days afterwards. 

With time on my hands between visits ( I came across from Pretoria and spent the day there - visiting hours were strictly enforced in those days!), I went to the Wits Library and looked up bronchiectasis, this strange disease she had been diagnosed with. Only afterwards was it explained that the reason for the procedure was to determine if the bottom third of both lungs, or one lung, could be removed.  Neither option was possible because in Jenny's case the dead tissue that needed to be removed, was scattered all over both lungs.  

The alliction, not caused by pollution as such, but most certainly severely exacerbated by it, came to dominate her life and eventually lead to her death. But, in 1967, the life expectancy of those with bronchiectasis was 20 years, and Jenny lasted 50.  She was a fighter.

Wedding 6 July 1967 at St Agnes Church, Kloof, Natal

Wedding party:

• Med & Henry Shadwell, Jenny's parents,  Lil & Dennis Heher, Tony's parents

• Bridesmaids: Sue Gill (later Sue Wolstenholme), Lyn Schlar-Chick, Iolanthe Boozaier

• Bestman: Martyn Wolstenholme; groomsmen, Ant Cantrell & Llew Jones, with guard of honour back up from Pat Raw and the Shuttleworth brothers.

We were the first of the close knit Mountain Club gang to get married and all our friends were as excited as we were. It was a very memorable day, especially the totally unexpected ice-axe guard of honour. Where they got all those from is a mystery. 

The wedding photograph disaster:

The wedding photographer that had been booked months in advance, triple booked himself.! He had two weddings on the same day, and his wife aslo gave birth that day!  As a result he did not pitch at all for photos at the church and what we have is snaps from various friends!   

But it did not phase us at all, and we had a wonderful wedding at St Agnes Church in Kloof, Natal.  A simple, 'traditional' (for the time) wedding of a service in the church, then a walk across to the hall for tea. All over in 3 hours!  Neither Jenny or I had any part of the arrangements.  It was all done for us by Jenny's parents. So simple and so lovely. 

... and this led, in the blink of eye, to Doug.