My Grandmother lived in a small west coast gehuggie called Koperfontein and it was so minute that it had the possibility of being overlooked on the map. Everyday life in Koperfontein was quite predictable but the people living there led a simple but rich life.

In a place like Koperfontein, your only option to keep your sanity was to escape. My Grandmother mastered this quite well. She escaped to happy places where you can find fairies, stories, food, magic and the occasional ghost. She created all of this in Koperfontein! She took her environment and changed it to suite her. (Something I think we all can learn to do.)

She created a garden in the unforgiving west coast climate and dry sandy soil. She built a small pond of which she was quite proud off and planted anything that has the will to grow there. I remembered that she watered some sort of weed, just because it flowered. Yes, she loved flowers and beautiful things. On her visits to us in Natal, she was overwhelmed by the green vegetation and the beautiful gardens. We got caught quite often on our walks when she picked flowers in other people’s gardens ! She just could not resist a flower. Another thing that dazzled her was the city lights. Koperfontein had no street lights apart from candles and the odd Aladdin lamp round which families gathered round in the evenings. We used to take her to a viewing point close to our home in Pietermaritzburg to see the sprawling city lights. Magic!

One of her escapes was writing stories and poems. She wrote stories with magical creatures that could do anything. She wrote a book of bedtime stories for my brother and me. I remember the book, handwritten and decorated with pictures cards drawings and anything colourful that she could find to give life to her stories. It was the best book ever and we loved it. At bedtime my father always had to read the stories to us since her handwriting was somewhat doctor-like. We would then go on a journey of adventure and mystery. Hope and Joy! I have not seen the book in years; I suspect my father still have it.

After my grandfather passed on, Ouma Girlie, as she was commonly known, lived for many years all by herself in the old house at Koperfontein. I never knew Oupa Jan, but she used to tell us stories about their trips together and what a kind and gentle man he was. After Oupa’s death she had to learn to drive the big green Ford Fairmont. She had a small posture and had to sit on a cushion in order to see ahead. She bought a little booklet to study for a drivers licence and went for a few driving lessons. The booklet indicated that one must show confidence in driving a car. On the day of her test she pulled away with such a fury that stones and gravel flew in all directions. She drove fast as to show the instructor her confidence, sitting on her cushion. Well, in the end she got her driver’s license and her world of escape and fantasy immediately expanded. She took road trips to other towns and interesting places, always with a picnic basket packed with hardboiled eggs, cold meats, sandwiches and a flask of tea. Every now and then she and her friends would stop and picnicked alongside the road.

Today, I wonder what she would have said about our world, the technology, the anger and the politics. I wonder if she would have liked to live here ?

I think she would have escaped……

Jan du Toit

May 2010

Pretoria