Safe travels, Ouma Violet!

Violet Virginia Theunissen 

Our Ouma finally took her leave from this earth. She was 96 years!

Finally, because it could not have been that comfortable to still be here. The eyes and the hearing were not good anymore, and she was confined to her bed and a chair. Her children and grandchildren are scattered, and could not visit her often. Luckily she had her daughter nearby!

She also had the angels looking after her at the old age home in eMalahleni. We saw Cecilia again at the gratitude service on Friday, one of the many angels looking after the frail. Ouma Violet used to call her her mother. Even till the end, says Cecilia!

Seventy is a really good number!

My mom celebrated her seventieth birthday with us at The Drakensberg Sun. She always loves to be on holiday when it is time for her birthday, and this time it was no different!
After the midweek break of last week she and my dad continued with their holiday on the South Coast.

We are grateful to have her in our lives, and that she is still there for the two granddaughters to enjoy!
She helps out with the daughters, and she is always available to babysit Little Missy.

You do not appreciate your own mother more than when you have your own children and realise exactly what she must have done for us! She had four of us, and she was working as well when I went to high school.

Happy birthday, Mom!

We had a great lunch on her special day with a view to die for.

Central Drakensberg

Lunch in the winter sun

At Drakensberg Sun
(I want to come back here - there is at least five hiking trails)

Little Missy in the distance running to the play ground

Finches for company

The beggars got some!

Thanks, Mom, for all you do! 

We are lucky to be able to spend time with you!

And we love the holidays with you and Dad!

Angels all around, especially for great grandmothers

We visited our 92-year old grandmother who broke her leg two and a half weeks back.

She was back at the old age home in eMalahleni (formerly known as Witbank).

She was sitting a bit skew and uncomfortable, but after we called the nurses, they came and pulled her upright.

My grandmother says that it is very sore and very uncomfortable.

She has a plate and pens in her leg, and hopefully it will help to heel the leg.

(We hope so!)

92 years are blessed indeed!

And we can still talk to her!

She tells us again and again about his she fell, and what she remembers about her hospital stay...

It was a very scary experience for an old lady, especially since she struggles to see and hear, and to understand English. (The language mostly used in the hospitals...)

A nurse putting on my grandmother's gloves, after they apparently phoned her daughter the previous day to bring her a pair. She was cold! My aunt had to rush with a new pair that same day.

The cleaning lady, Cecilia, came and asked my grandmother who she is. 

My grandmother replied: "My Mother!"

And that us the impression I got at the South African Women's Federation for the Weakened Elderly. 

They are all angels looking after the elderly people!

The businesses in town all contributed to the rooms, and brightened it up. (Also angels!)

The place is looking extremely cheerful!

My dad, her eldest son, with his mother and me.

With the fourth generation!

And then there are her two room companions, two ladies, whom are angels already...

The bodies are left behind... 

(I would not want to live this long, and not be here anymore!)

The lady in the middle is 97 years of age, the eldest in the old age home.

The lady on the right was pulling the whole time on her blanket, looking ready to get up and go!

----

Thanks to all the Angels looking after our mothers and grandmothers, and also looking after those only left behind in the flesh!

Also thanks to the children looking after their parents!

You are doing a great job!

What with the talk of 67 minutes for Madiba today...

You are doing a 24/7 job, each and every day!

Thanks for looking after my grandmother!

Wordless Wednesday #131 - Birthday 91 and 19

Wordless Wednesday #105 - Love my Grandma!

Four grandmothers

The toddler has four grandmothers. Two great-grandmothers are included in this number; one is 90 years, and the other one turned 85 just recently.

We went to visit Ouma K this weekend! The Toddler loves the idea of having four grandmothers! She tells my father often that she has more than one grandmother...

It is a sad state of affairs that we do not see Ouma K often enough... She lives about an hour away, but we do not get enough opportunity to go and visit! She celebrated her 85^th birthday the previous weekend, and we missed it...

Luckily we could go yesterday. 

Happy birthday, Ouma K! The Toddler is extremely lucky to know you as well!

A very special flower

Each Spring I am reminded of my grandmother when the geraniums are bloom in our garden.

She used to make new cuttings each year on her porch, and each year the porch was a flowerbed of red or pink geraniums. (Maybe there was a little bit of white as well?) Those cuttings made it to my father's garden, and when we moved into our place, we also got a fresh cutting...

I am not as good with starting anew each year with new cuttings, and then we don't get the full beauty of the geraniums...

But Hubby had to take out a patch of garden, and I especially asked that he keep the geraniums.

This year we have a little bit of red in a pot. A little bit that reminds me a lot of my grandmother!

I wish she could have known my daughters, and I wish they could have known her!
She was such a great lady who stayed in touch with the world, and I remember fondly of how we could talk to her about anything!

I sure miss you, Ouma Non! Thanks for the geraniums!

90th BDAY

Ouma Violet

Wordless Wednesday #73 - Autumn in Mpumalanga

Dunkeld Country Estate
Dullstroom

Aging and family members



I hate being confronted with aging in all of its “pleasant” physical symptoms. Especially when a family member gets hit by it… It immediately translates into genes and it could target me as well! Some day when I am going to age… (Not now!).

I am not afraid of old age, and I have been saying that I want to turn that dial until 100. But it sure won’t be “fun” when I have all sorts of ailments…

My grandmother is nearing that wonderful age of 90 (in June), but it seems that the frail little body is struggling at the moment. She has been very independent, and we hope it will continue like this! We hope you get well very soon, Grandma! 90 is a very good age to have come!

If she struggles with poor blood circulation, I check my own sores to see if it does not heal as quickly. When her hand gets swollen with gout (something else?), maybe that is in my blood as well? If my father gets a heart attack, I immediately get uptight when my own heart feels uptight! Stress or real heart trouble?

Sounds a bit melodramatic or hypochondriac of me, but I find the older I get the more I think about this! Especially since I’ve got a very young Toddler in my life that I want to see grow up…

Who else thinks of this, or I am showing symptoms of… Old Age?

(Photo: Grandma with the toddler the previous year)

Wordless Wednesday #38 - Feeding the birds