My husband Dave and I entered 2014 with great excitement as we had planned our trip to the UK and the Isle of Mann to visit our daughters and their families. I had the added joy of going to meet my first grandchild to be born end of April 2014.
I had the strong feeling to invite my 90 year old mother who lived in KZN to come and spend two weeks with us in Cape Town over Easter before we left for the UK on 10 May. We always treated her visits as though they could be the last and this time we had the pleasure of taking her for a guided tour in the golf buggy around Kirstenbosch Botanical gardens, enjoying fish and chips at Fish Hoek beach on one of our special spring evenings. A real highlight was taking her to see Swan Lake ballet which she loved. The day before we had to admit her to hospital, we took her for a two hour ride in a wheel chair along Sea Point promenade and through Green Point Park. We decided to take the long way home through Hout Bay stopping to see a most spectacular sunset – little did we know that this would be my Mum’s last sunset.
Our dear Mum was the great family matriarch and we all loved her dearly. To honour her on the occasion of her 90th birthday in September 2013 all the family gathered in Cape St Francis to celebrate this big milestone. My daughter had made a photobook of her life with pictures of all the family and a message from each of us. This was a real treasure for her and in retrospect we are so thrilled we were able to express our love and appreciation when she was still alive rather than doing this only at her memorial service.
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