...and meeting Dad's cousin

Dad's grandparents, Alexander and Alice (nee Cawood), his father Percy back row left and his aunts and uncles.
Aunt Joyce as a young girl front row right.

Photos of Joyce in the Wedderburn Book.

Life is a wonderful journey of 'who would have thought moments'.

One such moment was a conversation on a beach with my dear friend Bev, a passing question about her husband's father led me to lunch with Patsy Edkins yesterday.

Patsy is an aunt to Bev's husband and she is also my Dad's cousin.

Her mother was Joyce Wedderburn and one of Grandpa Percy's sisters.

I have a recall of Dad talking about his aunt and uncle who lived in Bolton Road, Parkwood, Patsy's family home. He would be continually amazed at how Rosebank and environs had changed from the years he had visited.

Mom wrote to Aunt Joyce and asked her to share some thoughts about her parents, Alex and Alice and stories of growing up in Bloemfontein. She kept Joyce's response and this letter is in the Wedderburn Book.

The letter is a gem.

Particularly the snippets of information about the Cawood's.

She writes that Alice Cawood grew up on a farm Southwell, near Grahamstown, Fred and I drove past Southwell on a back road between Bathurst and Salem on our summer road trip a few weeks ago. Alice lost her mother really young and was married at 17. Joyce writes that she was married by her Great Uncle Rev. Barriette Cawood.

Patsy has a recall of Alice's mother dying giving birth.

Ahh, the Cawood wealth, jewels and monogrammed linen pass into the new family when Alice's father remarries.

'We had a lovely happy home...It was one of the nicest homes in Bloemfontein in my youth' 
Home to the family of 12 children was 32 Monument Road, Bloemfontein.

Joyce describes her father Alex, as very good looking indeed and 'wise, kind and clever'. 
She could be talking about all the Wedderburn men I have known.

Lindsay with her mother, Dad's cousin Patsy Edkins

Bev arranged for me to meet Patsy, she lives at Erinvale here in the Cape.
What a special afternoon.
I showed the Wedderburn Book to Patsy and Lindsay her daughter, we swapped family stories both recent and from way back. I loved it all.