Annette van Niekerk

Annette - a tribute from JP on the occasion of her 90th birthday

Annette was born on 13 May 1935 at the Hof Street Nursing Home, Cape Town. JP was born 19 months later at the same nursing home. Another coincidence was sharing the birthday of 13 May with Paul Sulcas – a friend with squash and UCT connections. When Annette was on holiday Paul was the person who her shop staff could phone.

Her early childhood was in Johannesburg where her father worked for her uncle, Jerry Bouwer. Her father then moved to Vryburg to join a legal practice. Annette attended junior school at Vryburg and high school as a boarder at Wynberg Girls High School, Cape Town. Her great friend at school and beyond was Meg Robertson, whose home in Cape Town was a refuge for Annette.

Wife

Annette and JP celebrated their 65th anniversary in October.

Her brothers Carel and Jan attended Rondebosch Boys High School, Carel some years ahead and Jan two years after JP.

Annette and JP first met at a pre-university camp in 1954 where some thought that she was Carel’s girlfriend as he was so attentive to his sister. This was an inauspicious start as new students were required to provide a concert. JP’s party trick was to play a mini harmonica while walking on his hands and Annette thought “what a show-off”.

JP was an extra male at Annette’s 21st birthday at Fish Hoek. He was again an extra male at her friend Megs 21st birthday at Pinelands but by then was hooked head & heart by Annette. They were married in Vryburg in 1960 at the end of his internship.

Together they had a wonderful life’s journey with great experiences and fun. At their Golden wedding anniversary JP spoke about disasters that they had faced, which had strengthened their marriage. Annette was supportive in JP’s major career switches with its many challenges and 6 homes.

See below for a carousel of photos and videos of the occasion at Kelvin Grove

Mother

Their first child, Meg, was born in Welkom. Annette had difficult pregnancies with several miscarriages. A second child, a son, was also born in Welkom. All went well until he had a sudden decline and died after a few days of unknown cause. A trainee Methodist minister, Charles Villa-Vicencio, was a source of support and many years later he and his wife became good friends.

Gerrie was born in Cape Town shortly after their return to Cape Town. Dr Cecil Craig, who was handling the delivery when JP was due to play an important squash match told JP to get on with the game, which he lost in record time to be present at the delivery.

During specialist studies at Groote Schuur Hospital JP met Phyllis Prichard, a radiographer from Wales who was out on a contract. On completion of her contract Phyllis went to Bulawayo from where she later sent a letter enquiring about help as she was pregnant. Annette and JP invited her to stay, which she did for much of her pregnancy and which led to the disclosure adoption of their son Jo. Annette and JP kept contact with Phyllis and at Jo’s wedding JP walked down the aisle with two mothers, Annette and Phyllis. All have a wonderful continuing friendship

In her teenage years Meg erupted and was only much later diagnosed as having severe bipolar disorder. This was tough on Meg and the boys. Again, the life lessons strengthened the marriage and enabled Annette and JP to be of assistance to others facing the same problems.

The sons have successful careers, Gerrie is a loss adjuster and Jo an IT engineer.

They have five grandchildren.

Sport

At school Annette played 1st team hockey and was in the Western Province 2nd hockey team. She played squash and shared in JP’s competitive passion for the game, including local and overseas representative trips.

Later both took to hiking which resulted in new friendships. They did several yachting adventures with Carel van der Merwe.

Religion

Since junior school Annette’s religion has been important in her life and she has been an active member of Plumstead Methodist Church for >50 years.

Hostess

Since Welkom days they had open house with frequent home entertainment for squash, family and later medical functions. Some were big functions e.g. Jo & Elizabeth’s wedding reception and JP 50th school class reunion.

Annette enjoyed cooking and pays tribute to Ann Davids who was with the family for 45 years. She was co-hostess, wonderful cook, friend and part of our family and keeping all in their place.

Career

Nurse: Annette qualified as a nurse and acquired four additional nursing qualifications. She worked as a health visitor in Cape Town Divisional Council, and at Welkom.

Monson’s: Back in Cape Town Annette took over a family men’s outfitting shop in Wynberg that was in the process of closing down. The men’s business disappeared but a Clarke’s children’s shoe fitting service kept the show going until it became a women’s comfort shoe business. After opening a store in the new Cavendish Square shopping centre, the Wynberg shop was closed. Branches at the Riverside Shopping Centre Rondebosch and at East London were unsuccessful.

Annette did annual trips overseas for buying shoes that required understanding styles, sizes, colours, numbers of pairs. After Clarkes pulled out of the country in 1987 and Monson’s ran at a loss for two years, Annette bought a second-hand industrial sewing machine to make leather belts and tried peddling various goods at Bloemfontein, Welkom etc. Because of the financial pinch they had to sell their house. The business slowly recovered, and she sold it when she was 74 years old.

Building supervisor: They had bought a property in Brommersvlei Rd, Constantia, and were in the process of building when the master builder died. JP had just started in a partnership practice, was chairman of Western Province Squash, organising the interprovincial tournament in Cape Town, playing in the Western Province team. They registered as builders to keep the building team, but the supervision, keeping tabs on stock, and keeping books all fell on Annette. The house was built within budget and on time.

With thanks to Sally for the photos and videos of the speeches

(The photos are only of family and a few old, close friends. 'Everyone' would have filled the page - and still risked leaving someone out!)