On Mother's Day Hettie thought of her two godmothers, both her mother's sisters and nurses.
In an era when letters were still being written, letters to her mother were concluded with: "Give Hettie a kiss."
The two were in close contact with the sister and children in the Petrusburg area. The three sisters had the same physique and clothing, such as shoes, were sent and for the children shells from East London.
The bond with the godmothers was further strengthened after Hettie's mother died when she started university. They looked after her with love.
The husband of one of them died and she married a Scot in her fifties and moved to Glasgow. She went to visit her godmother and could see more of her when they returned to SA to escape the cold winters in Scotland.
They had a far-reaching impact on her life and they enriched her life as a rural Afrikaans daughter and contributed to her development.
Hettie concludes with a matriarchal and patriarchal lineage of the three Cloete sisters.
Hettie Muller, 1 August 2021