77) Only Living Relative

The first Christmas we were in Witbank, Roy, Maureen, David and Janet Arnold came to visit us. Roy had left Zimbabwe and was working for a building society in Johannesburg. He had bought a little house in a suburb called Alberton. We had been through to visit him there it was not bad house but the yard was very small with a high wall around it, not at all what he had been used to in Zimbabwe. Maureen, David and Janet were still living in Harare, as the children were finishing their education. They came to stay with him over the Christmas school holiday and they joined us for Christmas lunch at Cecilia’s house.

Clockwise round the table starting with Dominic in the striped T shirt, Cecilia, Derrick, Me, Roy, Maureen, Janet, Jonathan and David. Jonny must have taken the photo

It was so good to be with our friends again and we hoped that soon they would all come to live in South Africa and that we would be able to see them more often. But it did not work out for them in South Africa and later on Roy sold their house in Alberton and went back to live in Zimbabwe again. We understood why but we were sorry about it. Roy and Maureen are still living in Harare although David and Janet have moved to London. We are in touch with them through the email and wonder about the way people’s lives move and change. Theirs back to Zimbabwe and to the problems that living there involves and us on to Australia and a good life near our children and grandchildren. We really have been blessed.

The next Christmas my mother came to visit us. Since her first visit in 1976 she had come every other year. She spent one Christmas in England with my sisters there and came and spent the alternate ones with us. We had moved a couple of times since 1976 so she had seen Harare, The Vumba and Umtali now she was coming to a completely new country. While she was with us she reminded me that my cousin Rita was living in Johannesburg. When I left Swansea Rita was only a little girl and as I was 20 we had not been close and we had not kept in touch. My Mom had told me that she had married and gone to South Africa but as we were in Zimbabwe at the time I had not thought much about it. Now that we were living fairly close to her Mom asked if there was any chance that we could get in touch with her. We phoned her and she invited us to go and visit her the following Sunday. At that time she was living at a place called Four Ways a semi rural suburb in the northern part of Johannesburg and we arranged that we would meet at a small shopping centre not far from her home so that she could show us the way to her house. I remember as we got near to the shops I saw Rita standing next to her car and she reminded me of her mother, Theresa and I knew that this was my cousin. Theresa was my father’s sister, she had married an Italian prisoner of war called Bruno and had gone to live in Venice. He died very young and later Theresa remarried and came back to Britain. I wonder if ‘blood is thicker than water’ as Rita and I who were really strangers got on well together right from the start and we became good friends. As we were sure that we were the only people in Africa who had “Pelosi” blood in our veins we became each other’s “only living relative in Africa”. She has a wicked sense of humour and when ever we got together we would have great fun and laugh a great deal. She is an attractive, clever and amusing woman so it was not hard to like her. At that time Rita was working as a buyer for a large food production company. Later the firm she was working for transferred her to Cape Town and she went kicking and screaming. Well maybe that is an exaggeration but she was not happy about going as she had a circle of friends in Johannesburg and liked where she was living She had an attractive little cottage on a fairly large plot of land, with horses and dogs around her and lots of trees and plenty of space. When a few years later the firm wanted to transfer her back to Johannesburg she had settled so well in Cape Town that she said that she did not want to go. The company said that the job was in Joburg and so if she wanted the job she would have to move back and she decided that she liked Cape Town better than her job and parted company with them. Since then she has tried all sorts of jobs. She has done catering of many kinds, and secretarial work for different companies, worked for a hairdresser and also refurbished houses. Cooking is one of Rita’s many talents and at one time she started her own catering company, catering for fancy parties or making meals to store in some hungry bachelor’s deep freeze. I am always impressed by the way she can turn her hand to just about anything and usually make a success of it. Once she got a job selling ‘microwave egg boilers’ at a show of some kind in Cape Town. She did so well at that she took up an offer to travel to Durban for the next show and sell more ‘microwave egg boilers’. Unfortunately for Rita the public in Durban either did not like boiled eggs or did not have microwave ovens as she did not sell many ‘egg boilers’. She worked very hard at it and we loved having her to stay with us for the time she was in Durban as we had moved there by then.

Rita really loves her dogs and cats and so has always spoilt them outrageously. Consequently they have all been terribly demanding and led her a merry song and dance. They have always ruled her life and treat her abominably but I think she is a willing slave to their every mood so there is not much one can do about it.

Rita and Bobby