Standerton’s Billy Sonnen speaks freely about an eventful past
He lost sight in his left eye, sustained injuries such as a broken jaw, injured cheekbone and palate of the mouth cut in half.
Not an ounce of bitterness in Mr Billy Sonnen of Standerton after losing sight in his left eye.
An accident on the road between Kinross and Brendon Village, way back in the seventies, was recalled because of the loss of life.
Billy was sitting behind the driver, his cousin Tommy, the front seat towards the left was taken up by his other cousin, Matthew.
They were returning from Springs on 28 February 1976 and picked up a hitchhiker on his way to Evander.
Their Hillman Vogue smashed into the back of a truck.
“I can’t remember much,” the man freshly back from the air force that year, said.
Three men died in the accident.
Tommy was on a weekend army pass and Matthew had just begun working on a mine in Evander, so did the hitchhiker.
“I was the only one alive and unconscious for 11 days,” Billy said.
He lost sight in his left eye, sustained injuries such as a broken jaw, injured cheekbone and palate of the mouth cut in half.
“It must have happened when my arm went through the window.”
Former Johannesburg General Hospital treated him and his employer at that time, where he had only been working for a fortnight, paid his salary and all medical expenses for a period of three months.
Billy ascribed his survival to his fitness in those years.
The funeral had to be postponed three times since the families were not sure whether he would make it.
Two people returning from the funeral also lost their lives in an accident in Evander when their car rolled.
He joined the banking industry afterwards and began as a teller and worked his way up to see Secunda taking shape from gravel roads, and no buildings, to the town of today.
“We were parked in a truck in the veld,” Billy added.
“Secunda used to be like the Wild West.”
The young employees at the bank exchanged cheques, from another bank than their own, for the foreign contractors and more than once, had their fill of eye candy.
“We used to love watching the French women at Silkaatskop watering their plants, topless.”
Despite a manual available on procedures to cash cheques, a national retailer had a signboard in Boksburg.
“No Secunda-cheques will be accepted,” it read.
Those were also the days of no computers and petrol stations closing at noon.
His bank opened a proper branch in Secunda and Billy was duly transferred, with the portfolio of public relations officer.
Mien, his wife, the ‘Boeremeisie’ and a blind date, needs to be mentioned in his tale.
“It was love at first sight.”
They have been married for 33 years and their offspring, Dean and Michelle, a son-in-law, Joré and two grandchildren complete only a little of the picture.
Mien crocheted squares of wool to be put upon a tree stump outside their home in Caledon Street, Standerton.
“What are you doing?
“‘Los my, ek gaan jou wys’,” was her reply.
Billy was circuit treasurer of the Methodist Church for 10 years and handed the stick to a young woman at an auditing firm in town.
The general consensus was obviously that, in the event of his death, someone needs to be able to do the books.
Dr Skip König, who used to practice in Standerton, treated him for the squint in the eye and Billy was finally fitted with a prosthesis.
Billy’s command of Afrikaans explained: “Nou is ek ’n Suidwester, die een oog kyk suid en die ander een wes.”
A retina that burst, with the technology available, could not be healed in those years.
He was a regular at the parkrun at the Standerton River Park and estimated that nearly 70 5kms were completed.
Billy Sonnen joined the motor industry in 1994 as a salesman and has been in the employ in the finance department of an auto dealer in town since 2000.
His bookkeeping skills and vast knowledge of finance were put to good use.
“I am here today, the Lord still wants me to do something,” he concluded.
