Editor – We live in Shearer Road, close to Egerton Primary School.
The neighbour across the street practices an engineering works in his backyard. Next to him, a young couple moved in recently. They brought with them two large dogs, contributing to the cacophony of our little society.
Next to them, two ladies you seldom see share a house. Next to us, two black families each occupy an apartment. There is a great mutual respect towards each other and we share a very friendly relationship.
Further up the street live a few guys who can party like hell. At the end of Shearer Road, across Cochrane Road, lived the security guard for Egerton School. Each person in this community has his own type of car, greets in his individual way and has his specific career.
My career is that of a pensioner, and my wife and I love gardening, so we are out enjoying it early in the morning. At 6am, the school’s security guard comes limping past our house and waves his hand in a friendly gesture.
Just after 7am, his wife rushes past to deliver his breakfast with a friendly “Môre oom, môre antie!” By 12pm, the procedure is repeated to serve his lunch.
Amid the regular interaction, we never knew their names, yet they were an integral and positive part of our little society and of our daily experience; part and parcel of the history of this street in Ladysmith.
It is all these everyday repeats that colour life’s page for the day – small engagements with friendly, real people. Even if you do not know their names, you know them – not who they are, but that they are.
You can feel them and you know that they are genuine; their friendly faces convey a ray of light that reflects somewhere in your life.
Then one day, he was suddenly gone.
Nobody told us, we just saw the hearse and we knew. We learnt their names when we presented her with a bunch of flowers my wife cut from our garden to convey our condolences. His name was Dougie Douglas and she is Rina.
Our neighbourhood puzzle is broken. One of our daily rituals has come to an end and there is a piece missing because Dougie has gone home to the Lord he served, while others are in mourning.
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