I took down the birthday calendar behind the bathroom door this morning and noted a death. Shirlee died yesterday.
NUMBER 18:
Remembering Shirlee
My early childhood and teenage memories are defined by family get-togethers at Kalkwal, the farm of my Grandparents; Percy and Ina Wedderburn.
The extended family would spend lazy December holidays at the farm, swimming in the Modder River, playing cards in the cage to avoid the fierce summer afternoon heat, tea under the huge pepper trees in the front garden, dinners in the cool, dark dining room, the 'grown-ups' having a game of scrabble and how I loved the build up to Christmas Day.
For me, it was all about my cousins. And especially Shirlee.
My heart is so aware today of how our lives and the choices we made, have kept us apart.
I thank you for the times we did have and for what you meant to me, and I choose to remember you as my beautiful golden cousin.
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| Me with Shirlee and her first child, Shinel. |
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| The Wedderburn clan at Kalkwal in the Free State |
