One of the greatest gifts that my late-grandfather left our family was a 'cottage at the sea.' A little short of 60 years ago he decided to build a beach house, on what I believe to be one of the most beautiful stretches of beach that the Eastern Cape coastline has to offer, Kleinemonde (affectionately known as Kleinies.) Ever since that our family, like many other farming families in the lower Albany, has religiously moved to Kleinies for every Christmas break and most Easter holidays. The cottage itself is nothing fancy, but that's the beauty of it. It's been the setting to some of my cousins' and my fondest memories - and is probably the reason that we are as close as we still are.
Everytime we have a chance, we reminisce about the time when: our uncles rather under the weather friend fell off the balcony; the boys hid cane and cream soda in the bushes and after it baked in the sun all day, they consumed it with hillarious concequences; we brought our first boyfriends / girlfriends to stay and the cousins weren't always too welcoming of the outsider; Grandpa would shout "batman" to the boys because he couldn't remember who-was-who and desperately wanted his whiskey; we would sneak to bonfires, before Kleinies had a bar; we'd run around in circles following seagull prints thinking it was the Easter Bunny; the parents insisted we lie down on our beds for at least an hour after lunch, in silence, before we could hit the beach again; we had to go door-to-door to collect money of the annual sports day; we had a Mexican New Years and tequilla with the adults - enough said; we annually attend Christmas Church 'under the trees' and how no one there says Happy Christmas but rather "Happy Happ" or "Happ Happ." These are just a few of the amazing times we've shared there and hopefully there will be many many more.
And so when much of St Francis Bay went up in flames on Sunday and everyone's first response was "well at least they are only holiday homes" I agreed until I had a chance to think about how I would feel if that was our cottage going up in smoke and taking with it the reminders of my happiest times. While it would have been in no way better had the houses been permanent residences, I don't think we can dismiss the sadness caused because they weren't.
Many in today's environment can no longer afford the luxury of a beach house and so now, even more than ever before, I count my blessings and thank Grandpa for his gift, a gift that will continue to bond us as a family and help to build even more amazing memories.
St Francis Bay Fires - 11 November 2012
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