These were prophetic words by My Margaret

[Andrè]

Please allow me to share if I may: in April 2013 - My Margaret and I have done a 5 day hike (the world famous Otter hike in our beautiful country, South Africa) which, little did we know, was her final hike - on our way there (it is 1000 km from home), we've overnight at one of our favourite guest houses in a small town called Prince Albert at the foot of the Swartberg Mountain - this was on 22/4/13 - on her first birthday-date (9/7/14) after she passed (she passed away 7/2/14), I was again in this guesthouse - I went through the guest book and found this entry by My Margaret when we were there 22/4/13 - it was written in our home language - fully translated it says "Lovely, just wasn't here long enough - Andrè & Magriet Wheeler" - it immediately struck me that her words were prophetic indeed, without us knowing it at the time - yes, SHE wasn't here, in this earthly life of ours, long enough. I photographed the words in her own handwriting and can be seen on the composite image below. This means such a lot to me - and as I said - little did we know that 6 months later, she would be diagnosed with stage 4B cancer of the pancreas with mets to the liver - terminal - and 4 months on, her earthly journey would come to an end - My Margaret, my iron lady, my everything from us being ages 10 and 9 - I will carry her in my heart and love her, to my own last breath. Co-incidentally (or is it?) this was her FINAL hike - The Otter Hike - which was also her very FIRST in December 1991 - in between, we've done 60 long hikes - but the Otter was her first and also her last.

[enna]

Oh, thank you for sharing this beautiful memory, Andrè. Swartberg Mountain must be a great hike. Here in the United States, we have many breathtaking mountains. Your videos show that Swartberg must be a wonderful place to hike. I wish your Margreit was still with you to continue your adventures.

Anne

[Guest]

Andre- your artistry is truly inspiring.  What a gift you have to help you preserve the memories of such an amazing lady.  I assume your native tongue is Boer?

[Andrè]

BRAD - thank you - I don't know about the "artistry" bit but I'll take it - thanks - I have photography and post processing the images as a hobby since 2002, but a "pro" I'm not - perhaps a wannabee though! My mother tongue is actually Afrikaans - but for some reason all Afrikaans speaking people over here are seen as "Boer" - "boer" is the Afrikaans word for farmer - I'm not farming but still I'm seen as one of the boers - our language has Dutch roots coming from the Netherlands - we have 11 (yes, 11) official languages in our country and Afrikaans being a so called minority group - so, when "talking" on the net, I do so in English the +/- universal language - I'm sure my English grammar and tenses give it away that English not my mother tongue - as long as I can make myself +/- understood, despite grammar errors. Anyway - you're correct - these images of mine, of all our hikes, I treasure and visit them all the time - we were sooooo blessed, to have one another and that we could do these hikes in our lovely country - so blessed - you can imagine how many stories and reference I have in my head - of all our adventures together - you will know I'm sure, that a lot of "things" happened and being encountered during our 62 long distance hikes - precious memories indeed. Thanks again Brad - take care and be safe!

[kayc]

Andrè,

Quite the contrary, your English is excellent!  You seem to be educated and very articulate.  I love your  videos and pictures, and yes they are artistic!  You and Anne (Enna) are our video masters here!

 

[Margm]

I think you speak beautifully.  My native tongue is country redneck.  Should be English, but my "i's" always come out as "a's:  My hometown is Springhill, pronounced Spranghill.  I know how to pronounce "egg and leg" but they always come out as "aig and laig."  My Billy used to laugh at my one syllable "surp" while his had two syllables "syr-up"  He finally made me change my "Thursday" when I wanted a drink of water to the proper thirsty.  Then I had to learn to distinguish a lot of dialects while doing medical transcription with English as the 2nd or 3rd language. Some of the doctors would dictate three pages of a major surgery and all I could do was try to keep the instruments and body parts close to where the operative slip said the type of surgery was to be done..

So, you speak beautifully, and your skills with photography and the computer are envied by me.  My Billy was an amateur photographer.  He had just bought his new lens and camera when he got sick.  Now our amateur photographer daughter has it.  

[Andrè]

KayC - aaaaaaahhhh, thank you for THAT - but really, I'm no "master" at it - I just have a lot of patience in doing them and thrive on learnig new things - I'm never really happy with the result but somewhere I have to stop - actually THAT (and related stuff) is ALL I wish to do - I became a true procrastinator (now THAT is a nice English word - hahaha) - important things fall along the wayside - and it will land me in trouble one time or another - like my returns to our local Receiver Of Revenue (I think you call it the IRS in the US), I'm 2 years behind - but who cares? - as I said, I became a champion procrastinator - completely the opposite of who I was before. Thanks again KayC - much appreciated - take care and be safe! Reagrds.

[Andrè]

MargM - you made me laugh now - but in a good way - I can really "hear" you - when you would srup iso syrup - lovely - when I talk English, a real Englishman will immediately know - our Afrikaans speaking people over here have a sort of "flat" pronunciation of certain words - I guess it also comes form the area where I grew up - My Margaret was very good in both languages - she could switch seamlessly between the two - she was a theatre sister in nursing (as we call them over here, when a registered and qualified nurse) and her study-material was 90% in English - I learned a lot too, because I "assisted" with her studies - those medical terms and language - when she and our daughter (also a registered - in ICU) talked about the happenings in their respective hospitals, I could listen for hours and hours - the stories they have to tell - I miss THAT so much!!! Anyway - thanks MargM - God bless, take care and be safe! Regards.

[kayc]

Yeah, we have the IRS...it should be a four letter word though!

[mittam99]

1 hour ago, kayc said:

Yeah, we have the IRS...it should be a four letter word though!

Actually (and few people know this) IRS

stands for Incredibly Reduced Salary. Truth! 

Ok... I actually made that up.