Actress uplifts lives
She is known to be an actress, but Suelette Thompson also has a soft spot for charity.
After her husband died, Linden actress Suelette Thompson found meaning to her life again when she started volunteering at the Ry-ma-in Independent Living Community Centre in Linden.
The centre houses and provides care to 11 quadriplegics and paraplegics. Thompson’s first encounter with the centre was when she volunteered to help with their Christmas party. She fell in love with the people and five years later she still works with the centre.
Thompson said whenever the centre needed help she tried to assist where she could. “To me the residents are like any other human being,” she said. “I wear shoes, they sit in wheelchairs. My car is organised so that I can provide transport if they were to have problems with their bus. I have less time these days, but I want to give back to the community.”
Thompson and business partner Marius van Wyk-Meyer own an acting agency, Thespians. The pair handle contracts and look for work for actors.
Thompson is remembered for her role as Suzie in the Afrikaans drama series Agter elke man. “However, before that I played characters in Skooldae, Bosveld Hotel and Kampus. Nowadays I try to act at least once a year. The business keeps me very busy.”
Thompson has four children and two grandchildren. “My grandchildren often go to Ry-ma-in where the residents give them lifts in their wheelchairs. It is so assuring for me to see that my grandchildren also see the residents as ordinary people.”
