I think I can safely say that his family were the most important part of his life. He would get up very early every morning to cook porridge for us all and set the table for breakfast. Each night he would prepare our school lunches and his own ... seven lunches in all. On Fridays he religiously cooked his famous fish and chips for dinner. He grew mealies (corn) and made delicious mealie bread, but the corn cobs had to go straight into a pot of boiling water when picked so as not to lose any flavour.
Papa was passionate about gardening, spending many hours growing beautiful flowers of all sorts, bromeliads, vegetables, grapes and litchi, paw paw and guava trees. He had an ongoing battle with unwelcome visitors who would steal his fruit …. monkeys from the nearby bush, birds and the occasional two-legged ones. He would pay me 5 cents per pound for beans which I harvested, despite having helped me prepare the garden bed for planting and watering them when they were neglected.
Besides gardening, Papa’s other hobby was making all sorts of things for us out of wood. This was done in the garage in the company of huge black spiders, which were his friends. He refused to get rid of the webs, believing that the spiders got rid of many unwelcome insects. He made high jump poles, stilts, a go cart, a soccer game with two teams of players painted red and blue, a marble game, Australian parrots, kangaroos and koalas, Hlangwane die Hlaue Hlange, Velocipede the motorcyclist, Bubli the tumbling clown and many more. Once we were old enough to not chop our fingers off, he made us each a biltong guillotine, which works beautifully.
Papa also loved playing bridge and chess. He taught me to play at the age of 11 or 12, because he needed another person to make up a foursome. Whilst holidaying at Sinkwazi Beach, our bridge sessions would go on for hours until Helmuth would eventually announce that it was time to hit the beach.
He was forever thoughtful, but there is one incident which stands out in my mind. Just before I left Greytown to study in Stellenbosch, Papa went out and bought a pocket knife for me. He said that “everyone should have one just in case”. Although I never really found a use for it, I trusted him and carried it around in my bag for at least 40 years …. and it would still be with me if I hadn’t lost it during the last few years!
I could go on forever, but to finish off I would like to say “Thank you, Papa!”. You meant so much to all of us!