• Eileen May Lotter writes:
At the tender age of 13, I was handed to the state and remained state property until the age of 18. My home was a reformatory.
Occasional visits from my mother became non-existent. I had to make peace with the fact that I was on my own. I matriculated under the watchful eye of the government and, I must be honest, had a pretty normal life … considering I had no parental figure.
The past 11 years of my life have been truly humbling. I managed to fall in love, be loved and become part of an actual family.
This awakened the yearning within me to make contact with my own parents. The only problem was that I had no clue where they were and if they were even still alive. The search therefore began. Four years into the search I located and contacted my biological father (I was a splitting image of him). What a blessing! I never knew him, never got to spend time with him and never got to call him dad up to now.
I was under the impression he did not want me. What a fool I have been. First contact with him must have been the most emotional encounter I have ever had. We got in the car and arranged to meet him. My first-ever (and last) meeting with my dad. Unfortunately, exactly a year after our reunion dad passed away.
My dad, what an amazing man.
I therefore continued the search for my mom. Her family could not assist me as they knew just as much as I did, if not less.
The internet became my best friend and my worst enemy. I gathered so much information yet all information pointed to the fact that mom might be destitute and living in a squatter camp within the Roodepoort/ Randburg area. Hence this letter. I live in Richards Bay, do not have heaps of money and am not able to just jump in my vehicle (I don’t even think my vehicle will make it) and go rampant looking for her.
Private detectives are extremely expensive and not having contacts in the area makes finding her almost unattainable. I have read one of your articles on the white squatters camps and came to the conclusion that you might be able to assist. Would you?
Please, please, please help me find that missing puzzle piece called mom.
Description of my mom:
Her name is Johanna Jacoba Syffert, and her nicknames used to be Lynette/ Kleintjie. She is quite tall, between 1,7m and 1,8m. She has reddish-brown hair (could be grey now). She was always well-kept. She was never skinny, but it being so many years later I could not even guess. She has brown eyes, as far as I could remember. Attached is a very old photo of what she looked like many moons ago.
• Anyone with information can contact Eileen on 071 679 1772.
