Life full of joy, love and 7 bushbabies

TZANEEN – Lilian van Reenen turns 83 years old in a few months time.

Speaking from her home at Macadamia Retirement Village in Tzaneen, she reminisces about her life, her happy marriage and her bushbabies.

Lilian was born in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal and came to Tzaneen in 1934 at the age of three.

Her father, Frank Edwards, known as Teddy, was sent to Tzaneen to start and manage Troye’s Garage, the first Ford agency there.

One of Lilian’s earliest recollections is playing in the foundations of Troye’s Garage. She went to Laerskool Tzaneen and then St Pius Convent in Polokwane. She did a secretarial course in Pretoria and returned to Tzaneen when her father died.

Lilian, who is fluent in Sotho, says an interview without suitable accolades to her late husband would not be possible. Archie van Reenen was born in Kroonstad in the Free State. His parents were teachers. He studied agriculture at Cedara in KZN and came to Tzaneen in 1951 to run a farm.

She says she was about to get engaged to someone in Pretoria when she went to a party at King’s Walden in Agatha and Archie was there. He enquired about this attractive young girl, only to be told she was taken. Not phased at all, Archie replied, “I’m going to marry that girl.” The rest is history.

The young married couple took over the family farm, Loretto, in Hamawasha outside Tzaneen. The farm was not productive, so Archie supplemented the family income by selling cars and houses.

Lilian raised two sons and two daughters and says that the farming years were hard with many fires and droughts.

She was a secretary at Unicorn Primary School for 12 years, then secretary to Jay Branson at Sapekoe for four years, then returned to Unicorn Primary School for another two years and then retired.

The Van Reenen sports field at Unicorn Primary School is named after the family for their contribution to the school.

Birds’ eggs were Archie’s first love. From his early Free State school days his mentor was Dr O.P.M. Prozesky, the ornithologist at the then Transvaal museum. He instructed Archie on how to collect eggs scientifically, and oology (a branch of ornithology studying bird eggs, nests and breeding behaviour) became his passion.

In 1980 when legislation and the tide of public sentiment turned against oologists, Archie sold his collection of over 4 000 eggs covering 438 South African bird species to the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology in Los Angeles, US.

Archie captured many of the interesting stories in his book For the Love of Birds. He rewrote the book 14 times with the late Peter Williams as his backbone, Daphne Bender one of the main proofreaders and Lilian as his unwavering supporter.

Besides writing poetry, he also wrote another book for the family. Titled Two sides of the Coin it is the history of his two grandfathers who fought against each other at the battle of Koffiefontein near Kimberley during the Anglo Boer War.

The grandfathers were from the McDonald clan from Scotland and the Afrikaans Van Reenen family. Archie started a home museum. Soon he’d collected worthwhile memorabilia and historical items that drew visitors from far and wide.

The couple moved to Macadamia Retirement Village some five years ago and left the farm to their son. Archie died shortly thereafter at the age of 79.

Eighteen months ago, Lilian’s son-in-law was sitting on her veranda and spotted a thick tailed bushbaby, Galago crassicaudatus or “bosnagaap”. He set about making a trolley feeder contraption from the veranda to a nearby indigenous tree.

As night falls, Lilian places fruit in the wire basket, sends it to the tree and some seven bushbabies come to feast.

The Macadamia Retiremennt Village governing body granted her permission as she brings the leftovers in later so that the vervet monkeys aren’t tempted in the mornings.

Lilian enjoys coloured pencil art and beadwork. She no doubt took that cue from her goddaughter, Bev Gibson from Nottingham Road in KZN. Bev’s beadwork company, Ubuhle Beads (beautiful beads) is world renowned.

Lilian can’t explain her longevity as genetically she comes from a family who did not live long. She attributes her long life to taking a keen interest in the world around her and in everyone she meets.