I had NO idea what Encephalitis was until I met Sharon. So I was eager to look up what it meant and this is one of the descriptions that Google comes up with viz it is:
- An acute inflammation of the brain, often due to infection
- The infection may be bacterial or viral
- In some cases, it may be the result of an immune system disorder
- Generally begins with fever and headaches
- The symptoms gradually worsen, and there may be seizures (fits), confusion, drowsiness, and loss of consciousness
- Or like she would say ‘sometimes my brain becomes a bit scrambled’
- It affects only one side of the brain.
She was unendingly apologetic that should she start to ramble, we would know why.
But she is a most delightful, insightful and beautiful soul. She is 74 years of age, and has so much knowledge to pass on, I felt like we were cheated having had so little time to listen to her.
One of the things she was quick to share off the bat, was her positive experiences with public taxi drivers, who she says are always just so very kind to her. They need to hear this, as most of us will not share her story.
“Taxi drivers (especially on the Montclair route) are some of the nicest people I have met, she says. I have only had positive experiences with them. Do you know they take their time to bring us right up to our door, and are ever so patient with us? Give some thought to them as most of them wake up very early in the morning, maybe without any breakfast to start their day and they eat/drink as little as possible because they have to be in that taxi for long periods at a time. They have dreams too, you know!” So I promised her that I will include this in my write up. Her impassioned plea made me think that maybe, if someone read this and tells some of them, it might motivate others to also change their behaviour? Who knows? Because surely the newspapers are not going to write about them except the negative stuff we hear daily.
Dear readers, I write without prejudice and this is the opinion of one dear senior citizen. We at Good Enuf Enterprises have as our motto, the pursuit of positive being the new normal. Perhaps, and just maybe, we can be the catalysts of change if we start seeing our taxi drivers through a different lens; as people with dreams that matter, and hope they might just try to live up to that expectation, at some stage.
Be that as it may, meet our interviewee. Ms Sharon is 74 years of age. She is a resident at Montclair Place and on meeting her one would immediately be tempted to ask the question: “How did you end up living in Mitchell’s Plain”? She loves attending her local church and found the interactive sessions between young and old very fascinating, and necessary. She told me that the youth has/had a day where they would interact with the elderly. I thought that was quite a nice way of passing on useful knowledge. Maybe other religious institutions could adopt this model? She believes we should always make allowances for our differences.
She used to be a Leadership & Speech Craft Teacher in her days, and is still able to put a presentation together and to speak to a group of people if/when she should be invited. Passing and sharing of knowledge is high on her priority list.
She had an extremely interesting childhood – the parts that she can remember is story-book stuff. As a young girl she lived in Kenya for some time with her father. They came across a pride of lions one time, and she had to climb up and spend the night in a tree because the lions refused to leave. Imagine that! I bet none of us had such happen. During parts of their travel from Kenya en-route to South Africa, they would often times overnight in what was known as ‘rest huts’ and that was about the only form of ‘luxury’ experienced on such an exhaustive trip. It was a simple, but clean rondavel where you were able to sleep on a bed instead of your Landover truck. Because she could not speak Afrikaans, she was forced to take up a secretarial course. And her Dad taught her to how to fly a kite.
She became a computer analyst in her youth and it was then that she contracted Encephalitis.
As a child she was a mostly alone, and even at times felt ‘unwanted’ and struggled with self-esteem issues. What should have been a beautiful transition from youth to adulthood, was warped by her sense of ‘aloneness’. She therefore believes that children needs to grow up with a good role model in a parent, who can teach them how to be patient, and kind and how to deal with relationships.
On the question how she relates to the concept of role models, she responds:
- A child is a blank page that you write on as a parent or society;
- Without any experience of what love feels like, you make wrong choices ‘just to get away’ from your parents;
- Only later in life do you really experience love when the other person’s joy is more important than your own
- Gandhi said ‘be the change that you want to see’;
- Be consistent in saying “NO” in abusive relationships and break unhealthy habits;
- Don’t get your own mind in a storm over small things;
- Dr Caroline Leaf, author of ‘Who turned off my brain?’ did a study of how our brain synapses are twisted when we are unhappy, and how God sends a chemical wind every night, and turns the ‘tree branches’ of the brain straight up again. So we need to forgive more and be more grateful; bring back gratitude and let go of things, in other words ‘stop feeding the black dog’ of hate
- We need to publically acknowledge positive and focus less on the negative.
Because she’s well-travelled, and therefore if she could travel again, she would ‘revisit the land of relationships in pursuit of the next level of contentment’ as she put it.
“All my dreams are in the area of relationships where young people are shown how to have faith to wait for the right relationship. Also,
- There is enormous riches and
adventure to gain by reading!
- Read, and be simple in how we approach life.
- I worry that our kids are growing up to be so materialistic nowadays.
- We have to long to have people spend time in our company. Not be on your phones the whole time!
- What quality doctors/engineers are we going to have if we only pass with the bare minimum? Therefore the quality of education needs to be relooked for all.
- In the olden days we took care of what we got, but I don’t get the sense that is happening in society today.
- Society today is about ‘enrichment now!’
- I wish that our parents/grandparents had time to sit down to pass down all their knowledge before they died.
- Also as women, we are sacrificing our charm and grace;
- We girls are meant to put the sweetness in life; with this rush to climb the corporate ladder and trying to do/be like men we miss out on that.”
Thank you Ms Sharon, for a delightful hour spent in your company. It sure was informative. And time went by far too quickly.
We greeted and we’ve got an open invitation to touch sides with her again sometime in the future.