Hamba Gashle old man

Around mid June, I was contacted by my sister in South Africa to tell me that my father was not well, and in hospital. Fearing the ultimate, she called me and suggested I come over to see him.

Cutting the story short, I arrived on the evening of the 17th June. Once settled, and been to see my Mom, we went to the hospital to fetch Dad, who had now been discharged. On arriving there, I could see these were his final days, if that. I kept my thoughts to myself as it was not the time, and I hadn't seen him for years!

After taking him home and settling him in, we left. I stayed with my sister and her husband, and my other sister was there from Cape Town too. We had a great reunion!

In the early hours of the next morning, around 3 AM, the nurse from my Mom's retirement communit called to tell us that my Dad had left us. This was Father's Day, 18th June! We rushed to Mom to be with her, and to do the necessary organising for the removal of my Dad.

Later discussions, including with my Mom, led to us deciding to have a memorial as soon as possible. There was a lot of organising to be done. My other sister was on her way to us from England too, as was my wife.

Between my sisters and myself, we fairly quickly arranged a memorial at the retirement estate where they lived, for Thursday. Not leaving much time, we had little idea of who will come to the memorial, but we catered for about 40 people. Nieces got involved in designing a memorial pamphlet, which turned out to be fantastic.

Surprisingly, everything went to plan and the memorial was attended by around 50 friends and family, with my Dad's ailing younger brother gave a prayer, blessing and a few words about his brother, the Prof!

Mom gives the impression she is doing ok, and has been getting out a little. After 65 years together, I suspect she'll have some serious adapting to do, but we're all her for you Mom, the stalwart of the family who never complains, just deals with whatever life hands out to you!

You are hugely respected and loved, from all over the world!

Perhaps I'll write more about this in time, but certainly, even though I had not seen you for so long, you were always a presence in my life, and strangely, still are. In a way I'm grateful to have seen you, even though you had no idea who I was, but deep down, I believe you knew it was time!

Hamba Gashle old man, till we meet again.