Umtamvuna Views: Stalwart Lyn Wichmann will be missed

Lyn came to the farm ‘Sea View’ as a newlywed with her husband, Edgar.

October 17, 2019

PHILIPPA MAKEPEACE 3 minutes read

Much-loved Port Edward resident Lyn Wichmann died last week.

The local community is reeling from the unexpected death of matriarch Lyn Wichmann (66). Lyn was admitted to hospital ten days before her death as she was not feeling well.

She died at 5am on Wednesday (9th) from a suspected heart attack. Lyn came to the farm ‘Sea View’ as a newlywed with her husband Edgar.

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They raised their children in the area and became stalwarts in the community. Lyn was a keen gardener, a superb flower arranger and also mastered the art of cake decorating. She leaves her husband Edgar, children Darrel, Linda and Nicola, daughter and son in law Nikki and Andrew and grandchildren. She also leaves devastated siblings Friede Rohrs, Peter and Trevor Bense and Ronell Mountjoy (Canada). She will be sadly missed.

Bucket list item

Two local women have been in training since June to prepare for a dream excursion. They recently flew to Portugal to to walk 269km of the famous Camino Trail through northern Portugal and Spain.

The Camino de Santiago is a network of pilgrims’ ways (since the ninth century) leading to the shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in north-western Spain. Many do the trip as a form of spiritual path and it’s also popular with hiking and cycling enthusiasts.

Heidi Wichmann and Louise Bouwer embarked on this crazy excursion that was viewed with awe and dread by friends and family. The brave women landed in the beautiful port city of Porto (northern Portugal) and donned hiking boots and set off.

They walked every day for five days, covering 135km (averaging about 26km per day). On their second leg (slog) they cheated a little by climbing on a bus during two days of rain. Their last day of walking pushed them enormously with a 27km challenge.

The pair arrived at the beautiful cathedral of Santiago and were speechless with emotion and gratitude.

They had walked almost 230km over 10 days and returned home nursing a few toe blisters, but also with wonderful memories.

Snazzy affair

Susan Swiatek and her mom Pally van der Walt from Port Edward recently travelled to Gauteng to attend the matric dance of Tomasz Swiatek. Stunning local model Kelsey Barr from Margate attended the stellar event as his partner.

The event was held at popular wedding venue Avianto in Muldersdrift and tuxedos were the order of the day. Tomasz is matriculating from Trinity House High School in Randpark Ridge and plans to take a gap year before commencing his studies in geology at University of Johannesburg.

Local women Jeannette Offer, Denise Brass, Linsey Humphreys and Lorraine Kronik (Jeannette’s sister from Durban) boarded the Fouriesberg Country Tours bus to embark on the ‘Karoo Experience’ for a week.

The coach left from Margate Retirement Village with 30 travellers aboard. The group enjoyed an interesting visit to the National State of Orania for two nights and then on to the quaint old town of Prince Albert. They travelled the hairpin bends of Die Hel, visited a beautiful wine and olive farm near Prince Albert and stopped over at the Gariep Dam Hotel in Fouriesburg before returning home.

An elderly Port Edward woman was almost scammed out of her savings. Beth Todd recently received a media text from a dear friend she hadn’t seen for a number of years. The ‘friend’ informed her of an amazing windfall where she had won R300 000. She told Beth that she had seen her name on the list of winners and gave her a link to claim her prize.

Beth did this and all seemed authentic. She was instructed to buy a certain voucher for R3 000 and the big prize would be hers. She was about to do this, but luckily her husband convinced her it was a scam.

There are clever fraudsters who clone people’s media details, including profile pictures, convincing innocent victims that it is genuine. As the saying goes ‘If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.’ Be very careful.

All news to Philippa.