h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yesterday we set off to Thabazimbi for Aunt Nicky's funeral. Thabazimbi is a bit more than three hours' drive to the southwest of my hometown of Pietersburg/Polokwane. Thabazimbi is a region in the Waterberg Mountains that is intensively mined. When we got close we could see the mine-scarred mountain slopes. Aunt Nicky had lived there most of her adult life.

She was buried at the 'Hervormde Kerk' ... difficult to translate this into English to avoid confusion with the Afrikaans 'Reformed Church' which is the 'Gereformeerde Kerk' since there's just the one word in English, 'reformed', for both the words 'hervormde' and 'gereformeerde'. At any rate we were there early; the service was at 11:00 and we were there at 10:40. We waited and walked around the grounds a bit.

The hearse soon arrived and people we knew too. My aunt Marie (my mom's elder sister), Uncle Kerneels (their brother), uncle Kerneels' one son Cornelis and his wife Stefanie and their youngest daughter; my cousin Nico, Aunt Nicky's youngest son, and his wife Nicolette; also Maurice, Aunt Nicky's eldest son and his wife Elsie; and 'Uncle' George, Aunt Nicky's husband. He made a few scenes ... he appeared extremely grief-stricken and not quite in control of himself.

Aunt Nicky's coffin was opened so her brother and sisters could say goodbye. She (or more accurately her body) was full of bruises and scabs ... she had spent her last days falling down and bumping and hurting herself a lot. My mom and aunt Marie of course cried at seeing 'her' like that.

Maurice also showed us the last photo taken of her still alive. She looked as if she had shrunk, she looked really run-down, and also much older than she was.

Conspicuous by his absence was her middle son George. He had it seemed now made a complete break with his family. He was informed of her death over the cell phone but did not wish to speak to anybody; he just wasn't interested.

After the service we spoke a bit with a few folks.

I met Nico's wife Nicolette. Nico is I think about ten years younger than I. He's into computers and his wife is an actual rocket scientist. She helps design missiles for the private weapons manufacturer Denel. Nico seems to be handling his mother's death very well.

Like I say Maurice told us a bit about his mother's final days. He's the one who found her after her heart attack. Maurice is a year or two older than I.

I was glad to see my uncle Kerneels. He was not looking as bad as I had feared. He had been having a hard time taking care of himself after his wife Susara's death a few years ago. He had been living in a trailer in Thabazimbi and had dwindled down to 54 kg ... previously he was a typical stout Free-State Farmer so the change must have been shocking. He had been found and taken care of by his family a while ago so by yesterday he was up to 59 kg but still a lot thinner than I had ever seen him. He also had a long beard and a bit of an unkempt appearance. He will now be staying with his son Cornelis. Stefanie said that when they saw him they almost didn't recognise him; he looked almost like a hobo she said! Uncle Kerneels simply didn't know how to fix food for himself.

Well Uncle Kerneels at least showed some spirit ... certainly he's not over the wall yet. He was smoking like a chimney as usual though. He was never one to bother much about his health ... but still, he will be 75 in a month and he's still hanging in there. I hope his children could take care of him properly for his last years.

My aunt Marie is also getting old now ... she's about 70 now. The children were spaced about 5 years apart. She's still looking OK. She has a few things bothering her and she at some point declared an expression of being hopeless and uncle Kerneels admmonished her not to go the same way as Aunt Nicky. That was quite something coming from him!

Aunt Nicky was a few months short of her sixtieth birthday. We all agreed that her life was quite tragic.

Anyways we got on the way back at about two the afternoon. The trip back was uneventful ... we stopped at an eating place owned by a female cousin of my dad's but she wasn't there. We did see her a while ago and got lots of gossip.

I was happy my dad had 'made it' for the entire trip despite being still very exhausted from the chemotherapy.

We saw a lot of wildlife on the trip: birds including lilac-breasted rollers, long-tailed shrikes, wattled plovers, crowned plovers, helmeted guineafowl, blackshouldered kites, grey louries, yellowbilled and redbilled hornbills, along the road; mammals included blesbok (a kind of antelope), impalas, warthogs, vervet monkeys and baboobs. At the church there were some very vocal grey hornbills - we saw them and glimpsed them hopping among the branches of the huge monkey thorn trees.

Oh ... and at Thabazimbi we saw quite a flock - perhaps ten birds - of Cape Vultures! These vultures are endangered but breed in a few places in the Waterberg Mountains. We saw signs advertising a Vulture Restaurant in one of the nature reserves ... it seems to be working! This is the largest number of Cape Vultures I've ever seen in one place.

Very dear Willem,

Thank you for writing so sensitively and compassionately about your aunt Nicki, It must have been very painful for your mother.

Good that there are still families with such strong familial feelings as to come and say goodbye.

Your trip home sounded wonderful. I do so miss the country of my birth, but feel so fortunate to live in a country which has enabled me to regain my health and where, quite honestly I can live in my beautiful fourth floor flat and look across the channel to my country of origin - "la belle France ".....

I wonder if all countries are feminine in French? I should know. !!

Go well and take good care of yourself. Do have a glass of something tomorrow to celebrate my 81st birthday. I cannot believe that
"Ek word so oud"(Hope that is correct!!)

Go well,

Christiane AR80