4.1a EJM van Staden (Spouse)

Elizabeth Johanna Maria van Staden

What comes to mind:

• Cleanliness and perfection
• The smell of rusks in the oven.
• Gorgeous cookies in the oven.
• Swissroll like you have never seen, fluffy fresh, baby soft with a delicious coating of sugar.
• A melodius female voice reading comfortably for hours out of books for our family.
• The smell of perfume.
• A women that enjoyed to dress and do her hair.
• Caring.
• A mom who empowered me with the magic of reading.
• Nobody could make a Christmas cake like mom.

She was born on the 24 September 1937 In the district Groot Marico on a farm called Genadendal.

The nearest little settlement was Derdepoort. My mom grew up in the Bosveld so well renowned from the Herman Charles Bosman stories. She went to the primary school at Nietverdiend. It was a little farm school. She stayed from grade 1 in the school hostel. The only transport available was a donkey car or horses. Her parents relocated and then rented a farm from Attie Botha. The farm was called Doringhoek. I still remember the farm.It was a typical bushveld farm. When walking into the kitchen you always got the small of grinded coffee. It was dark in the house to keep it cool. Next to the black meraai was a box filled up with wood to keep it going. They had on the stove a “Konvoor” always filled with coffee and boiling away.a Collection of pots with flowering plants stood in the front of the house. When any drought hit it was easier to maintain the garden. I could imagine my mother filling a bucket with water at the windmill at the back. You then had to walk all the way to the front to water the pots. Part of her tasks must have been to collect small pieces of wood to keep the stove going. She then attended the Afrikaans High school in Groot Marico. Due to the distances, they had to stay in the school hostels. Transport was a donkey car. It was 120 km to Groot Marico.My Uncle Jannie van Staden remembered that the highlight for my mom was the new years eve dance at Mamba Klip close to Nietverdien. She met her future husband to be by chance.  He visited his uncle Piet Mc Carthy and his wife Lenie. They were farmers in the district and the next door neighbour of the van Stadens. He had a mechanical failure on his motorbike. Eventually they went together to a dance. She completed her matric and he was busy with his apprenticeship. On completion of his apprenticeship he went overseas. On his return he and my mother got married on the 28 of April 1956, she was 19 when they got married in Blyvooruitzicht.

 

 

 

 

 

Mom and dad went on their honeymoon to the south coast on the a motorbike. 

They stayed 2 years in Blyvooruitzicht. I was born on the 16 of November 1957. She only had one child. Whilst being pregnant, she had a very serious accident. She and her husband drove around the circle in Blyvoor. Her car door came open and she fell out. She was taken up in hospital. Both she and the baby survived the incident.On the 28 June 1958 my father joined his brother in law in a business venture in Makwassie. They stayed in the small local hotel for a few months. It was a small town. I remember mother was very methodical and neat. She could bake like you can’t believe. The biggest treat for me was that she would read for me and my dad when he came back from work. She could read for hours on end without tiring. I loved it and thanks to her amazing input I am an avid reader and could fluently read before I went to school. She loved reading and joined some of the Afrikaans book clubs for ex Van der Waldt en seuns, Keur, President Book club. She new all the authors in those days.  What an amazing priviledge, coming home from school and a well prepared plate of food was always ready.

She loved to dress and do her hair in different styles.

It was a weekly occasion to go to the hairdresser and try a new hair style. Mom loved music especially classical and contemporary music. We still had an old Hammerstein. I remember listening to Wagner, Jim Reeves and Mozardt. Dad built her a bran new house. She really loved her house and was a professional home maker.She always had a soft spot for old people. I remember going with her to some old people taking food or just sharing time. holiday’s mom wanted a bit of luxury and she did not want to work. We were poor, but dad saved and once a year we were of to the Four Seasons hotel in Durban. That was her treat. The droughts hit the Western Transvaal. My dad decided to get out of the business and joint the gold mines in the Carletonville area. We stayed in Fochville for a year. Then my dad got a house on the property at Western Deep Levels. Mom loved her gardens. I always had to assist her to plant seedlings or make a new bed. She loved roses.

She had a soft spot for dogs. We always had a small dog in the house.

Weekends we had to bath the dogs, clean the garden or wash the cars. She was very meticulous landing dad and myself in trouble on many a day. I will always remember, if you borrowed one of her books never bend a page corner. She was very sentimental. She stored small presents for years and never used it.She always wanted to write and enrolled in a writing course. I still have a few of her manuscripts that she has written. She never published a book. She took part in the social life. She would always assist with the sisters committee of their church and assist helping out with old people. Sadly mom took ill whilst staying in Western Deep levels and never fully recovered. She had kidney problems that caused high blood pressure. Dad then bought his own house in Carletonville. Here she climbed in and created her own garden and vegetable garden. She always had beans, pumpkins, carrots and lettuce.

In her fifties she sadly became very house bound due to being sick and never really wanted to visit or go out of her house. Mom passed away 3 months after my dad. She fell ill, was taken into hospital in Carletonville and just never came out of hospital. She was buried in the Carletonville cemetery on the 19 March 1996 at the age of 59.

Historical Timeline:                               

• 1927 – Elsje Rachel van der Merwe got married to Gert Hendrik Rautenbach McCarthy in Ventersdorp on the 26 of July 1927.
• 1928 – Elsje`s oldest son 2.3.4.1 Hercules Jacobus Mc Carthy was born on the 14 Oct 1928
• 1937 – Elizabeth Johanna Maria van Staden is born at Groot Marico on the 24 September 1937
• 1943 – Elsie and her husband moved to Blyvooruitzicht.
• 1947 – Hercules is issued with a standard six certificate on 28/03/47.
• – Hercules started as an apprentice on the 9 th of April 1947 at Blyvooruitzicht.
• – On the 27 April 1947 Hercules became a member of the Ventersdorp Dutch reformed church.
• 1949 – On 1/08/1949 Hendrik became a surface foreman
• 1952 – Hercules McCarthy qualified as a fitter at the Blyvooruitzicht mine.
• 1953 – A driver’s liscense is issued to Hercules McCarthy in Fochville.
• 1956 – On the 28 april 1956 Hercules Jacobus McCarthy got married to Elizabeth Johanna Maria van Staden in Groot Marico.
• 1957 – Her only child Gert Hendrik Rautenbach McCarthy was born in Blyvooruitzicht on the 16 November 1957.
• 1958 – He resigned his work as a fitter at Blyvooruitzicht on 28/06/1958
• – He relocated to Makawassie to start a business with his brother in law
• 1960 – Hercules died on the 24 May 1960 at Odendaalsrus and was buried in Klerksdorp.
• 1964 – Dawid Stephanus Francois Van Staden Elizabeth`s father passed away in Groot Marico.
• 1966 – He left Makwassie and joined the Western Deep Levels mine on the 29/07/1966
• 1968 – On the 30 th of April 1968 Hendrik retired and he and his wife Elsie moved to Makwassie
• On 10 may 1968 Hendrik and his wife celebrated their 50 th wedding anniversary in Carletonville
• 1977 – He joined the Rapportryers in 1977 at the age of 49.
• 1979 – He was promoted to a foreman fitter of the Uranium plant in 16/04/1979
• 1985 – Elsie Rachel van der Merwe passed away on the 21 Oct 1985 at Makwassie.
• 1989 – Engela Elizabeth Mostert passed away at Carletonville on the 10 July 1989 and was buried at Swartruggens
• 1991 – Gert Hendrik Rautenbach Mc Carthy died on the 4 th of April 1991 in Brakpan.  He was buried on the 12 April 1991 in
• Makwassie
• 1992 – Hercules McCarthy worked for Western Deep Levels till his retirement in 5/03/1992 at the age of 63.
• 1995 – Hercule Jacobus McCarthy died of a heart attack in Ligtenburg on 27 Dec 1995.
• 1996 – Elizabeth Johanna Maria McCarthy died only 3 months after her husband on the 19 March 1996 in the Carletonville hospital