Gallery Samples Stories of our Ancestors | Page 59

Empangeni. He was not an artisan wearing dirty overalls and a grubby personality so he passed
muster with his eldest sister.
Aunty Ellen visited us regularly, never missing a beat when it came to putting her foot in her
mouth at every opportunity. She hurt many people through her lack of tact and it was only my
Mother Ruby, always the peacemaker, who would really be kind to her and listen to her endless
complaints and Old Maid’s stories.
My Mother threatened me with growing ‘just like Aunty Ellen’ (after all I had the legs)
whenever I fussed about anything and when I got to being twenty or so with no sign of a
permanent boy-friend the threat of being ‘left on the shelf just like Aunty Ellen’ grew ever
stronger with each passing year.
One must forgive some of Ellen’s difficult personality. As the eldest child, she didn’t have an
easy life and after all she lost FOUR brothers along the way and suffered the indignities of her
Father’s alcoholism. For all her disapproval of her sister and her misplaced desire to be ‘In
Society’ she died sad, lonely and longing for the very family she had snubbed.

B

ERTIE: 1906 – 1971

I have not headed these parts in chronological birth order but in the way the
family to me seems to be linked together. I have mentioned Uncle Bertie all along
as he was an integral part of our lives, even though he was a simple fellow: Or
perhaps, because he was simple. Bertie was born the day after Christmas 1906
which made him 12½ months older than Les who was born in January 1908. I gather that he
never attempted to find out about his biological mother, being very content with his adoptive
family.
Les’ school days were made difficult by Bertie as they were in
the same class at Boys Model School but he was quite
incapable of managing the lessons and homework. The result
was that he copied Les’ homework and tried to keep up using
his brother’s work as his. Whereas Les had a highly developed
Superego, was conscientious, very careful, and consistent,
Bertie happily neglected his homework, lied to get out of
trouble, blamed anyone who came his way and generally was
unperturbed by all the bother around him. And on top of it all,
no matter how ‘good’ Leslie was, or how ‘bad’ Bertie was the
latter always remained Rebecca’s favourite child and Les could
never get a ‘show-in’ as he would have said.
Les grew to avoid and ignore his brother as much as possible
and merely tolerated him ‘for Mum’s sake’. According to Les,
Bertie had ‘a screw loose’. I doubt whether Bertie got very far
in school, especially after Les left him behind and there was no
more homework to copy, but he did make quite a success of
jobs provided they were in his range of abilities. When I knew
him he was a Storeman at the CTC bazaar in Durban and he was immensely proud of his work
which he did very conscientiously and with pride.
UNCLE BERTIE, AS I REMEMBER
HIM

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