This photograph of me, my wife Annemarié and Leeza
Theron were taken exactly 50 years and 1 day after our marriage. Leeza was one
of three flower girls at out marriage in Middelburg, Transvaal, now Mpumalanga.
Yes, we got married on Friday 13 April 1973.
Annemarié visited Leeza and her husband in London 1992 when Leeza painted these two flower paintings for her. And we hung it in our sitting room ever since.
Two of Annemarié’s botanical paintings were accepted for exhibition in Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens for the Contemporary Botanical Art exhibition Plant2023 from 14 April 2023 - 25 April 2023. And because it coincided with my 73rd birthday, we decided to attend and to celebrate this wonderful event in Capetown. Part and parcel were to meet Leeza – she and her family are living in that area and she teaches Afrikaans for schoolchildren. She is still very excited about her children that she has the privilege to teach.
We were waiting her arrival and at one stage I was
alone at the table when I saw her coming. The plastic sheeting that protected
us from the wind, clouded the view and it was somewhat difficult to identity
her and for her to identify me. Then we made eye contact – and it was joy from
the word go. I haven’t seen Leeza for some years while Annemarié had seen her
some time ago. Well, we kept contact during these years and we are always in
her presence with those two floral paintings since 1992 when Annemarié got it
from her in the UK. We were much blessed by this meeting and we parted with
heavy hearts and tears in our eyes.
She told us a story, which in turn reminded me of
Frank McCourt in his book TEACHER MAN, of how she teaches. She is no ordinary
Afrikaans teacher in a posh English school. I hasten to add that she is no
ordinary teacher! She is a drama queen.
Frank apparently was an innovative and highly creative
teacher. He encouraged his learners to bring along recipe books for discussion.
And he got some stiff opposition from the parents – what on earth would he do
with that? Recipe books to class? Well, well, I never. Yet it is true.
And Leeza? What did she do with her schoolboys? The
very same thing: bring recipes books with and they had a ball of a time
discussings this. And to top it all, they started cooking on a Friday – cooking
while talking Afrikaans.
And she tells us a moving story about this troubled
old soul who felt neglected and rejected by all and sundry. His mom brought him
to Leeza’s home for music lessons [piano]. And I can imagine the welcoming
session she arranged for him, while his mother pushed off to go shopping.
This boy was not a novice in front of the piano; oh
no, he had some certificates to show for his skills. And he was troubled; he
had difficulty accepting himself for what he is and for what he wanted to be.
Leeza: “What would you like to drink? Coffee? Tea?”
and she was already on her way to the kitchen. “You haven’t been here for some
time, not so? Well, you will see that the piano is waiting for you in exactly
the same spot when you last were here. Go ahead and play something for me while
I prepared our tea and coffee.”
And he started playing. And she kept herself busy in
the kitchen; she did not tell me this, but I just think that she took her time
to let the boy get busy with the piano that he knew so well.
His reply to his erstwhile teacher? “Mam, thank you
for accepting me for who I am.”
I have a number of stories about our trip to the Cape
and back, but that will have to wait for another day. On the way down stopping
at Colesberg I met this ram who is about 3 years old – his story for later.
Please write me your story: neelscoertse@wirelessza.co.za
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