A sense of place along Faraday Boulevard, Vanderbijlpark

Nan and Pa van der Veen lived no more than 3 kilometres from our first home in Vanderbijlpark which was in Gillespie Street. So Nan's letters, which span a period from July 1959 to a note she left my mother in September 1971 giving her a few instructions on what to do with her special things on her death, are sent from her trips around South Africa mostly visiting family; Messina, Port St Johns, Amanzimtoti, Johannesburg.

This 2010 google maps photo of 39 Faraday Blvd looks so similar to what their home looked like in the sixties! 

I can do a mental walk through the house, I have a sense of the place, the darker unused front rooms, the light airiness out back, eating apricots directly from the tree with Clive, Nan's bedroom smelling faintly of her favourite 4711 Eau de Cologne, the colours of her crochet blanket, walking hand in hand to movies with Nan, if I am not mistaken to 'Sound of Music', Pa's wet kisses, and in the later years Nan in her wheelchair, after the  amputation of her legs caused by her diabetes.

There are two items in my home in Norwood that come from this time and this house along busy Faraday Boulevard in Vanderbijlpark, my kist left to me by Nan and a wrought iron bookcase made for me by Pa.

I never got to say thank you to Nan for the kist and I do so now, it is a much loved possession, the centre piece in the hall.