Joan R's story
Less
Fortunate
My
name is Lottie Van der Linden nee Van der Beek but when I was born
and christened in 1939 I was given the name Mary Weston I had two
older brothers Henry and George and a younger sister Alice. Our
father was killed in 1941in the war and our mother could not earn
enough to keep us so my brothers and myself were put into a home
Alice was a baby so she stayed our mother came to see us when she
could. Then in 1944 I was 5 Henry 11 and George 10 the matron came
and told us that our mother and sister had been killed in an air raid
and now that we were orphans we would be sent to another country to
start a new life.
Henry said we were family and should stay together
but I was marched away by the matron with Henry and George yelling my
name. I was put on a ship with some other girls I did not like it it
went up and down and rolled from side to side. After a very long time
we stopped at this place where there were very strange men and women
I asked a man on the ship why do they paint themselves black he just
laughed. I was taken to the home of Mila and Levi Van der Beek who
said they were now my parents I asked about my brothers but nothing
was known. I was shown to a room with lots of toys new clothes and
shoes.
I had a coloured nanny (that’s what they were called having
been born that way) also a coloured man to take me to school.
Everything was done for us I just went to school made friends and had
a very happy and good life as the years passed I forgot about my
brothers but sometimes I had an empty feeling as if I was missing
something but then I would go to a party and all would be well.
Then
when I was 20 I met Hans Van der Linden who I married life went on
much the same but when I was 22 Hans noticed a change in the
workforce and realised that trouble was coming to South Africa and
decided that we would return home as I was pregnant which we did to
Holland where he had family his mother welcomed me and was upset to
hear that I had no family. As our son was born Hans asked about a
name and I said without hesitation Henry George he looked at me as if
to say why I said that these were my brothers names the birth must
have triggered some memory I told Hans I had to look for them and he
agreed. It took us 10 years to locate them and I found they were less
Fortunate than me having been sent to Australia to a ranch in the
outback where the life was hard, cruel and brutal so that when Henry
was 18 he told George they were leaving and even though they had only
4 dollars between them they made there way to Sydney where Henry got
a job driving trucks George who liked cooking having done this on the
ranch worked in a restaurant they rented a cheap one bedroomed flat.
Henry said they had to do something with their lives he was not good
at anything so told George he had to enrol in night school to qualify
as a chef. He took every driving job going to pay for the equipment
and books George needed for his course but it reaped rewards as
George passed his exams with distinction. He continued working at the
restaurant and after two years the owner wanted to retire but he was
desperate for the restaurant to survive so he sold it to Henry and
George at a good price.
They obtained a bank loan to purchase it
there were two rooms above the kitchen used for storage they cleared
these out and lived there to save the rent of the flat. Henry still
took every job going. The restaurant thrived due to George creating a
new menu. When Henry was not driving he helped from washing dishes to
serving drinks and clearing tables. They went from strength to
strength so much so that when the premises next door became vacant
they purchased that to double the size of the restaurant. George told
Henry that he had to give up driving and come work full time as he
was a partner so Henry became the manager. Very soon they opened up
another restaurant and then another and another during all this time
they also managed to get married and have children buying houses next
to each other as they were that close. I did not know if they
remembered me let alone want to see me but Hans reached out and
discovered they had been looking for me so a visit was arranged. I
must admit then when we landed at Sydney airport I was nervous
looking at all the people that were there I recognised them straight
away and when Henry yelled Mary eeee I dropped my suitcase and ran
towards him he opened his arms scooped me up and swung me round like
he used to and right there and then I was five years old again in the
home. As my brothers and I hugged with our families looking on mostly
crying I felt that at last I was whole and another chapter of my
life was about to begin.
This is Sheila's
LESS FORTUNATE
Mark was thinking back to when he was a
young boy about 6 or 7 and seeing – in his minds eye – quite clearly, at
mealtimes his mother chiding him saying “Come on, eat up your dinner. There
are children LESS FORTUNATE than you somewhere in the world that haven’t got
enough to eat each day, and here you are leaving some’. He could still hear her
voice after all these years and still feel a bit guilty if he should ever leave
something. Because of this, the young Mark decided, that when he left school he
would try and do something about this situation and help these children – where
ever they were in the world. Of course, it was years before he was old enough
to leave school but it was always at the back of his mind, but he didn’t know
how to go about it. On leaving school he started an apprenticeship with a firm
that taught woodwork, metalwork, electrics, tiling and even thatching. In fact,
everything that goes into building houses, etc.
Mark loved the diversity of it
all and knew it would give him a good standing for any job in his future.
Little did he know, that when he walked into his local job centre, that he first
thing he saw was a poster wanting people to go to Africa to build homes and
school in little villages in the poorest areas of the country. Mark had a
‘light-bulb’ moment when he though ‘this is what I want to do to help all those
LESS FORTUNATE children that mum was talking about all those years ago’. His
mum was very proud that he was going to do this so after all the paperwork and
things had been sorted out he, and a few others that wanted to do the same, flew
off to Africa. They were met at the airport and drove for a few hours until
they arrived at this village in the middle of no-where. Some building had
already been started but there was still a lot to do. After a nights rest they
all got started the next day. It was hot going but they all soon got into the
routine and blended into a good working team.
Their first job was to build a
school. The children had only the one teacher that had been able to teach a
very basic education but the elders of the village were quite happy with that.
Mark and the team went on to build enough small homes to accommodate the dozen
or so families of the village, many of them had been living in one-roomed
shack-type places that their parents had made, so they were well pleased with
the new ones. There was a scheme where volunteers would arrive for a few weeks
to help, then leave and a few more would arrive. They were given jobs like keep
drinks of water coming, to fetch and carry things and generally make themselves
useful. Having finished one village, Mark and the team would move on to another
village and start all over again. Mark and the others always felt a great sense
of achievement after each one, but after 10 years or so Mark felt that it was
time to go home.
He was very sad to be leaving but also looking forward to
seeing his parents and friends again. Once home, there was lots and lots to
talk about of course. It was a bit strange at first getting to fit in after all
the years in Africa, but he soon got back into the less hectic way of life. As
he was thinking of his mother with his 6 or 7 year olds eyes and knowing all the
things that had resulted from that he was quite contented about how his life had
been and felt that yes, he had helped the children that were LESS
FORTUNATE.
