A notepad, 40 years later

A small notepad, the paper is yellowing.

My mother is in the Cancer Ward, Johannesburg General Hosiptal, Hillbrow and is creating a diary of events.

The period of the diary pages is July and August 1974, 40 years have gone by.

This is her opening page addressed to my father who she called Chip.

In 1974, I was turning 18, battling to adjust to my first year of university in Johannesburg and was staying in residence; Clive would have been 14, at Vaal High School in Vanderbijlpark; Inel is 7, and at primary school; Doreen turning 4 in the October of that year.

So her 'look after yourself and the kids' is an understatement.

She spent monday to friday having her cancer treatments and weekends back at home, with Dad juggling work, home, the 3 children and the to and fro to see his wife, recovering from her hysterectomy and terrified of the cancer, the treatments and very alone in her ward in Hillbrow.

This is an inflection point in their lives and affects many of the decisions they make going forward.

I will start reading the notes, looking for myself in her writing, as I have such poor recall of this time and trying to understand her journey.