86) The Blood Bank and The Standard Bank

I think that I have told you before that I was a regular blood donor. I thought it was about time the men in my family also gave blood but they were taking a little bit of persuading. Eventually Dominic agreed to give it a try and so we went together to the hospital. I know that giving blood can affect people differently so I was keeping a close eye on Dominic, as it was his first donation. When my turn to give came the nurse was a little reluctant to take my donation as she said that the sample drop of blood that she had taken from my finger did not drop to the bottom of the liquid as quickly as it should have and she thought I might be a little anaemic. I was in a bit of a hurry as I had shopping to do and told her that I felt fine and that I had never been anaemic and I was sure I would be fine so she went ahead with the bleeding. When she had finished I went across to Dominic to see if he was feeling all right. I was sitting on a chair, as the other nurse was just finishing off with him. After a few moments I felt a little light headed and then the next thing I remember was being helped off the floor by Dominic and the nurses. They put me onto a bed and gave me a sweet drink but I felt awful so they made me lay there for quite a while. At last I recovered and was ready to go home. The nurses were not happy about me going but I told them I was fine now and Dominic would drive the car so we would be quite safe. By the time we got near to our bank I asked Dominic if he would just stop as close to the bank as possible so that I could go in and cash a cheque. (No ATMs then) I agreed to leave my shopping until later, but I needed to get money as the bank would soon be closing, then I would not be able to shop until the next day. The only parking place that Dominic could find was just around the corner from the bank and he asked if that would be all right. By then I was feeling completely OK so I said that it was fine as it was not very far to walk. I got out of the car and walked towards the bank, passing the bottle store that was on the corner. Just as I had gone round the corner I passed out once again. I came round to find myself flat on the floor in front of the bottle store with people giving me some very strange looks. Dominic waiting in the car saw a small crowd collect and guessed that something might have happened to me. He came and helped me back to the car and took me home where I went straight to bed. I felt terrible and just slept for the rest of the day and all through that night. In the morning I thought I would feel well enough to do that shopping that still needed to be done but I could not manage it. In fact I felt so bad that I went to the doctor after a few days and he examined me and told me that I was very anaemic and gave me some tablets to take. He told me not to give blood again until I had cleared it with him. For the next fortnight or so I did not feel well and spent quite a bit of time in bed. Of course as usual I did not get a lot of sympathy from my family, they teased me all the time about falling down outside the bottle store. When after a couple of months I got the all clear form my doctor Dominic and I went once again to the hospital but when I got there and saw the blood and smelt the hospital smell and just could not face giving blood. So Dominic gave his pint and I chickened out. One might have thought that this rather dramatic start to his blood donating might have put Dominic off it for life but he became a very regular donor and gave for many years after that. Jonny was not keen for me to continue donating but I told him of the pressing need that there was for donors and he kindly agreed to give for me. He said that if I would stop donating he would go in my place and he too became a very good donor.

Working on the mine, with a regular salary, low cost housing and medical aid was a big help and we were able to start getting financially straight again. When we had been running the business we had had to run up an overdraft at the bank and they were not very accommodating about it. We had been with that particular banking company for many years so we were a bit peeved at the way they were behaving. Jonny met a man who was the manager of the Standard Bank in Witbank and he mentioned to him our gripe with our bank. The Standard Bank manager said “Move your account to my bank and I will look after you” Jonny told him that we could not do that as we were in overdraft but the banker said he understood that and he would take a chance on us. Not only did he take us on complete with our overdraft, he increased the facility. We always thought that that was a big joke. Jonny had often said laughingly “If they don’t treat me right, I’ll just take my overdraft elsewhere” but we never thought one could do it. I remember once bumping into the bank manager in the supermarket when I was there with Jonathan and Dominic. He remembered my name, stopped and chatted a while and was very friendly. The boys were very impressed; they thought it was quite an important thing to be on friendly terms with the bank manager. I told them jokingly that I was only remembered because we owed them money but that was not really true he was a very friendly person and a very good bank manager. Once when I was at the bank waiting to see him I was looking for something to read. There was nothing there except heavy financial reports and business journals. I had rather a long wait and when I went into his office he apologised that he had kept me waiting so long. I told him that I understood but couldn’t he do something about the reading matter in the outer office. I said that I was sure that I was not the only woman that called on him and I would prefer to read a magazine on home decorating, fashion or gardening not long-winded financial reports. The next time I went to see him about something I was very pleasantly surprised to find a small selection of good magazines amongst the reports and business journals. I thanked him and told him that it had greatly helped to pass the time as I waited but the time after that when I called on him again all the magazines had gone and we were back to all the journals. I asked him what had happened and he apologised and explained that one of his superiores had seen the magazines and had told him to remove them, as they were “not in accordance with bank policy”. It’s hard to believe that banks were so stuffy in those days.