50) A Double Tragedy
Our gardener was called Denford, besides keeping the garden tidy his duties also included cleaning the pool, washing the car, cleaning windows, doing the ironing and polishing the floors in the house. In fact he was more of a general factotum and would help out with anything when needed. He wanted to take his leave but before he went he asked us if we would like his younger brother to come and work for us for the time he would be away. We thought this would be a good idea so it was arranged. When his leave was over and Denford returned Jonny had some rather large project he wanted to complete in the garden and asked the younger man to stay for another two weeks and work with Denford to get it done.
On the first Saturday morning they were working together we were going with Jonathan to watch him play rugby in Sinoia and had to leave fairly early in the morning. We got up a bit late so I called Denford to come and clear up in the kitchen so we could get away quickly. I called a couple of times but he did not come so I just left the dishes and off we went. I thought it was a bit strange as I was pretty sure that the two brothers had been in their room at the end of our property but I was in too much of a hurry to investigate further and just assumed that they had gone out and spent the night with friends.
We arrived back from the rugby at about lunchtime and there was still no sign of them but as I was doing the dishes the gardener who worked for Beryl and Mervyn Shaw who lived in the house behind us came to speak to me. He told me that both Denford and his brother were dead. I was just so shocked I could not believe what I was hearing and asked him to repeat himself a couple of times.
He explained that he had heard me calling Denford in the morning and saw that he had not come to see what I wanted so when we had gone he came over the fence to investigate. He had been with the two of them the previous evening in their room. They had all sat talking around the fire that they had built in a grate that Jonny had made for them to put in the courtyard outside their room. The Shaw’s gardener said that he had found the two of them dead in their room. He had immediately called Mervyn who had come to see if there was anything he could do, but all that could be done was to call the police and report the deaths. Mervyn came over and told me that the police had been and taken away the bodies and he gave me the name of the policeman that I was to contact so that we could make a statement.
Jonny had made them the fire grate so that they could heat their water and they could use it to cook over too. They could also use it to keep themselves warm but we had warned them not to take it into the room and close the door, as it was dangerous. Every year a number of servants would die of carbon monoxide poisoning so there were always many warnings about the dangers of lighting fires in small unventilated rooms and the Shaw’s servant told me that they knew that it was dangerous in fact before he had left them they had said that they were going to put the grate outside and go to bed as soon as he left. But they must have just fallen asleep. A very, very sad thing to happen.
The police came to take our statements, and to find out their full names and the address of their family. The police were very sympathetic and told us that they had to deal with too many of this kind of death each year and that with all the advertising that was done to warn of the dangers it still happened. They told us that they would take the clothing and belongings of the dead men and that if their family came to see us we were to tell them to call at the police station. We felt so upset, we thought if only we had done something different it might not have happened. But of course we had told them not to put into the room and they had promised that they would not and there was nothing else we could do. We were very fond of Denford and his brother and were very sad about their deaths. He had been a cheerful and willing worker and he got on well with Jonathan and Dominic.
The police contacted his family who lived in a very rural part of Rhodesia in what was called Tribal Trust Land. About a week later they came to collect their bodies. Denford’s mother wanted to take them back to her village for burial but they had a terrible problem trying to organise the transport of the coffins back to their village. It was still in the middle of the terrorist war and there were restrictions on where one could travel. The only person we could find who had a permit to go into the Tribal Trust Land was delivering food to the stores there and could not help us with our problem. At the time we had a one-ton van and we were willing to help out but the police would not grant us a permit to go there. I remember spending a great deal of time on the phone trying to arrange something for the poor lady but in the end she had to accept that she could not take her boys home and that they would have to be buried in the city.
The African people tend to be very superstitious and so we could not get anyone to live in that room after that. We had other gardeners but they all said that there were Tokkoloshs (Ghosts) in there and would not stay there at night. One young man who worked for us for a while was desperate for accommodation so he was willing to give it a try. But even he would not stay there. He asked if he could just sleep in the store room that we had at the back of Jonny’s workshop so we put all the stuff that was in the store room into the servants room and let him use that but he said that the tokkolosh had come in the night and thrown stones onto the roof of the storeroom, they knew he was in there so he would have to leave, nothing would convince him to stay.
Another young man who wanted to work for us and use the accommodation asked if we would pay for a witch doctor to get rid of the bad spirits there. We did not believe that but we thought that if all the people in the neighbourhood could see that it had been “cleaned” we might be able to get gardeners to stay there. We gave the young man $10, quite a bit of money in those days, and he went off to see the witch doctor. We thought that he would come back with the witch doctor but it appeared that even witch doctors did not do house calls in those days. He gave the young man some powder to sprinkle around the place and said that all would be well after that. I seem to remember that it did take about a week but after that we had no more trouble.
On the first Saturday morning they were working together we were going with Jonathan to watch him play rugby in Sinoia and had to leave fairly early in the morning. We got up a bit late so I called Denford to come and clear up in the kitchen so we could get away quickly. I called a couple of times but he did not come so I just left the dishes and off we went. I thought it was a bit strange as I was pretty sure that the two brothers had been in their room at the end of our property but I was in too much of a hurry to investigate further and just assumed that they had gone out and spent the night with friends.
We arrived back from the rugby at about lunchtime and there was still no sign of them but as I was doing the dishes the gardener who worked for Beryl and Mervyn Shaw who lived in the house behind us came to speak to me. He told me that both Denford and his brother were dead. I was just so shocked I could not believe what I was hearing and asked him to repeat himself a couple of times.
He explained that he had heard me calling Denford in the morning and saw that he had not come to see what I wanted so when we had gone he came over the fence to investigate. He had been with the two of them the previous evening in their room. They had all sat talking around the fire that they had built in a grate that Jonny had made for them to put in the courtyard outside their room. The Shaw’s gardener said that he had found the two of them dead in their room. He had immediately called Mervyn who had come to see if there was anything he could do, but all that could be done was to call the police and report the deaths. Mervyn came over and told me that the police had been and taken away the bodies and he gave me the name of the policeman that I was to contact so that we could make a statement.
Jonny had made them the fire grate so that they could heat their water and they could use it to cook over too. They could also use it to keep themselves warm but we had warned them not to take it into the room and close the door, as it was dangerous. Every year a number of servants would die of carbon monoxide poisoning so there were always many warnings about the dangers of lighting fires in small unventilated rooms and the Shaw’s servant told me that they knew that it was dangerous in fact before he had left them they had said that they were going to put the grate outside and go to bed as soon as he left. But they must have just fallen asleep. A very, very sad thing to happen.
The police came to take our statements, and to find out their full names and the address of their family. The police were very sympathetic and told us that they had to deal with too many of this kind of death each year and that with all the advertising that was done to warn of the dangers it still happened. They told us that they would take the clothing and belongings of the dead men and that if their family came to see us we were to tell them to call at the police station. We felt so upset, we thought if only we had done something different it might not have happened. But of course we had told them not to put into the room and they had promised that they would not and there was nothing else we could do. We were very fond of Denford and his brother and were very sad about their deaths. He had been a cheerful and willing worker and he got on well with Jonathan and Dominic.
The police contacted his family who lived in a very rural part of Rhodesia in what was called Tribal Trust Land. About a week later they came to collect their bodies. Denford’s mother wanted to take them back to her village for burial but they had a terrible problem trying to organise the transport of the coffins back to their village. It was still in the middle of the terrorist war and there were restrictions on where one could travel. The only person we could find who had a permit to go into the Tribal Trust Land was delivering food to the stores there and could not help us with our problem. At the time we had a one-ton van and we were willing to help out but the police would not grant us a permit to go there. I remember spending a great deal of time on the phone trying to arrange something for the poor lady but in the end she had to accept that she could not take her boys home and that they would have to be buried in the city.
The African people tend to be very superstitious and so we could not get anyone to live in that room after that. We had other gardeners but they all said that there were Tokkoloshs (Ghosts) in there and would not stay there at night. One young man who worked for us for a while was desperate for accommodation so he was willing to give it a try. But even he would not stay there. He asked if he could just sleep in the store room that we had at the back of Jonny’s workshop so we put all the stuff that was in the store room into the servants room and let him use that but he said that the tokkolosh had come in the night and thrown stones onto the roof of the storeroom, they knew he was in there so he would have to leave, nothing would convince him to stay.
Another young man who wanted to work for us and use the accommodation asked if we would pay for a witch doctor to get rid of the bad spirits there. We did not believe that but we thought that if all the people in the neighbourhood could see that it had been “cleaned” we might be able to get gardeners to stay there. We gave the young man $10, quite a bit of money in those days, and he went off to see the witch doctor. We thought that he would come back with the witch doctor but it appeared that even witch doctors did not do house calls in those days. He gave the young man some powder to sprinkle around the place and said that all would be well after that. I seem to remember that it did take about a week but after that we had no more trouble.
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