The Vryheid Herald’s Jenny calls it a day
"I have met and worked with some amazing (and truly weird) people over the years."
JENNY Seegers, the Vryheid Herald’s Office Manager (plus proofreader, plus censor, plus debtors and creditors clerk, plus bookkeeper, plus mother hen, plus, plus, plus…) is retiring at the end of July, having been with the Vryheid Herald for 26-and-a-half of its 30-year existence. Without this sounding like an obituary, she will be sorely missed.
She joined the Vryheid Herald almost by accident, crossing over from the Tote (yes, the horse racing betting shop!) which occupied the same premises. This was shortly after she and her husband Neville and family arrived in Vryheid from Ladysmith. But the cross over to the Herald was something, she says, that she has never regretted.
“I have a very low boredom threshold,” says Jenny, “and one thing I have never been is bored in the last 26-and-a-half years. I have met and worked with some amazing (and truly weird) people over the years and I can honestly say that every day I have learnt something new. “I doubt very much whether this would have been the case had I managed to stay on at Standard Bank where I worked for a whole nine months – just after I tried to take over from Florence Nightingale – that lasted 20 months, or working for an accountant (on two occasions), or selling tyres (I once sold a whole set to a man before I discovered that they were the wrong size). Not to mention the years I spent at home trying to be a model Mummy – total disaster.”
At a farewell luncheon last week, Caxton NKZN Regional Manager, George Meyer, thanked Jenny for the contribution she had made to the Vryheid Herald over the years, saying that her efforts had not gone unnoticed, and that she would be missed.
Vryheid Herald Editor, John Carnegie, also thanked her on behalf of the staff, past and present, of the newspaper. He said too that the Vryheid Herald in effect recorded the history of Vryheid in convenient weekly editions, and that by being part of the newspaper Jenny was now also part of the history of Vryheid, and would not be forgotten.
Jenny thanked the staff saying, “Thank you to all of you. You represent all the folk who I have known over the years, and you have unknowingly perhaps, made my life far richer for being in it.”
Jenny and Neville, who is also retired, are staying in Vryheid with Jenny planning to catch up on her reading, sewing and beading.
