Generations of families returning to Westpark Cemetery continue to find the same familiar face waiting with flowers outside the gates.

For more than four decades, Lenasia resident Collen Padayachee has arrived at the cemetery around 06:30 and usually leaves at 16:00. In between, visitors pass his stall on their way to remember, visit or say goodbye to loved ones.

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“I know everyone and everyone knows Collen,” he said.

Padayachee started selling flowers at Westpark in the 1980s after asking his cousin, the business owner, for work. He has never worked anywhere else.

“My cousin has been very good to me for all these years,” he said. “I was the one who asked him… I need a job, and from that time, it’s been many years that I’ve been working.”

Over 40 years, Padayachee has watched Westpark and the surrounding area change while getting to know the people who pass through its gates. He has seen families return decades after a burial.

“Even if it’s after years, they come. And they find me here,” he said.

His work places him close to difficult moments in people’s lives. He speaks of seeing customers return to remember loved ones and the heartbreak that comes with loss.

“I’ve learned so much from people,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking.”

His memories are not only about grief. He recalls meeting people from all walks of life, including former presidents and ministers, who have stopped to speak with him.

Most importantly, he remembers the everyday people who ask how he is doing. To Padayachee, those simple questions mean a lot.

“As though we are family,” he said.

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The trade has changed considerably since he began, becoming quieter, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic. The availability of flowers has also changed, with fewer varieties available than before. Yet despite the changes, he continues to return every morning.

“Being with the people, that’s more important to me,” he said. “Everybody that’s around me… the children, the cousins. Just being with them. That keeps me going. It’s my people.”

Padayachee is also conscious of his responsibility as a familiar presence and alerts customers when he has safety concerns inside the grounds. “This is my place,” he said.

With a quiet laugh, he added that perhaps one day he will also be buried inside Heroes’ Acre.

Opened in 1942, Westpark Cemetery is bordered by Montgomery Park, Sophiatown and Emmarentia. It serves as an important Johannesburg place of remembrance, housing the graves of many prominent South Africans.

For Padayachee, its meaning remains personal — the place where he built a working life and became a familiar face to generations of visitors.

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