Mystery solved – Local man unearths story behind grave garden discovery in Vryheid

WHO were Freda and Willie Potgieter and why would their gravestone be located in somebody’s garden?

These were the questions that came to mind when a local family made this eerie discovery in the grass at their home in Edward Street.

But how does one go about finding the answers when not even Google has a clue about this mindboggling mystery from the 1900’s? You contact Andrè van Ellinckhuyzen, that’s how…

With only a photo of the headstone to work from, Van Ellinckhuyzen, who is a local treasure trove of knowledge when it comes to Vryheid’s rich and colourful history, as well as a researcher extraordinaire, managed to unearth the story behind the names on the mysterious gravestone and even succeeded in tracking down their next of kin, who still lives in Vryheid.

According to Van Ellinckhuyzen’s research, he uncovered that the first name on the mysteriously forgotten monument, Freda Potgieter, was born Fredaricka Elizabetha Olivier, on June 4, 1929 in Kenya.

Freda relocated with her family as a teenager and later met her husband, Eduard Willem Potgieter, while working as a nursing sister in Piet Retief, Mpumalanga Province. The couple were married in the Dutch Reformed Church in Piet Retief on October 2, 1948 and Freda went from nursing sister to ‘boervrou’, giving birth to a son in 1953.

On October 29, 1989, Freda was involved in a motor vehicle accident near Moolman in Piet Retief and died as a result of a head injury sustained in the tragic crash. Her husband, Willem, went on to farm mielies and peanuts in the Zaailaagte area in later years, and passed away at Giyani, in the Limpopo Province on January 14, 1999, almost ten years after his beloved’s passing.

In his search for the story behind the enigmatic marble memorial marker, Van Ellinckhuyzen was able to track down their son, Eddie Potgieter, who still resides in Vryheid, a mere two-minute drive from the garden where the headstone, etched with the names of his parents so many years before, was recently discovered.

Mr Potgieter was able to confirm that his parents are both buried in Vryheid Cemetery, laid to rest in the same grave and that, several years ago, the family erected a new gravestone at the site of their final resting place. He has no idea how the old headstone found its way to someone’s garden.

Following the unearthing of the puzzling gravestone and Andrè van Ellinckhuyzen’s meticulous mystery-solving skills, Mr Potgieter has requested the Vryheid Herald’s assistance in finding a suitable beneficiary to whom the gravestone can be donated.

“If there is a family out there who has a loved one buried at the cemetery and that sincerely does not have the money to buy and erect a gravestone for them, I will gladly sponsor the old stone to such a family,” states Eddie Potgieter. “Perhaps they can polish my parents’ names off and have their loved one’s name engraved on it…”