"I start again a life without Dad."

Fred and Greet Kersten, Fred's Mom and Dad through the years.

1981, Fred and I had been married for a couple of years and we were living in a delightful cottage in Grove Road, Mountain View.

1981, the same year that we travelled to Europe for the first time, meeting Fred's family in Holland was, however, also a time of great loss for the Kersten family.

This tiny little Thank You card sent to Fred and me at number 6 Grove Road, from Zimbabwe on the 27 November 1981, tugs at my heart.

Fred's mother is deeply mourning the loss of her husband Fred Kersten and she writes how she is battling to do the routine things in her life, 'In the beginning I burnt my potato's and I didn't no how to make spinacie'.

She is also finding solace in these same routines though, 'Yesterday I was making nassie goreng 6 o'clock in the morning on a Sunday, did my big wash and was finished 8 o'clock.'

Fredericus Maria Kersten

2 December 1926 - 12 November 1981