Our trip to South Africa in February/March 2025 was primarily for the farewell/memorial service for Mom; our base of operations was therefore just the Western Cape, in particular Somerset West. We were (positively) surprised that all three children were adamant to be there – Sabine would just be there for 5 days, Luc & Mayra would leave after 8 days, and Ellen & I would be there for 11 days. Our party was larger than just the Dutch contingent: Sharon and Gavin & Lauren drove down from The Crags; Lynne joined us from Johannesburg too.
With the exception of Sharon, Gavin & Lauren, we all flew in on the Friday with various international and domestic arrival times. We also had all sorts of arranging in regard of rental cars – ultimately it was cheaper for us to do 2 smaller rentals than a single comfortable 5-seater(!). Accommodation for the Dutch delegation was a sprawling villa on the lower slopes of the Helderberg (also cheaper than a multitude of smaller options); our thinking was also that this would also do nicely as a central location for communal meals, and it served it’s purpose well … 🙂
Suffice to say that the lapa & swimming pool were put to very good use in the February summer heat … ☀️
In retrospect I think we pulled off something incredible – aside from all of the arrangements beforehand (leaflet, music, planning dates, activities coordination, etc.), on the day itself Gavin took care of a temporary WiFi/Internet infrastructure, Luc took care of a multi-camera livestream, and our Duck Pond ladies, Ronel & Charlene, provided us with a fantastic spread; good friends Peter & Carol assisted with the church hall reservation and preparations.
The service did, and was, exactly what we wanted – Mom in the spotlight, with lovely eulogies and shared memories, all backed by wonderful photos of her through the years. The sentiment was also apparent after the service, with all of our local visitors mingling and catching up (albeit briefly). Lovely to see old friends in person, as well as hearing feedback later from those further afield who joined the livestream; we were very honoured by their presence … ❤️
The next day we left Mom, as per her wishes, in the vineyard above Penhill.
Sharon, Ellen & I spent quite some time in the Penhill house during the next week, in particular sanitizing the reams of personal paperwork/administration in preparation for the further steps in dealing with the estate. In the still sweltering heat, it was hard, sweaty work, but we were glad to be able to carry out these last steps for Mom.
And, of course, we made sure that there were some touristic checkboxes dealt with – beach walks in Strand, a beachfront birthday dinner for Gavin, a family trip up Table Mountain (2014 was the last time that all 5 of us were there), wine-tastings at Eikendal & Hidden Valley, a hands-on visit to the Cheetah Outreach, and our 3 youngsters on a zipline adventure near Grabouw.
All in all, a blitz-visit and, although it wasn’t a holiday, we were happy to have been able to soak up some summer sunshine and drink some great wines … 😎