A Family Saga

Looking for a book at OR Tambo airport last week, I came across a paperback called The Little Women Letters. I was quite grumpy because all the other Exclusive Books in the country and even in Botswana were having sales, except the one in Departures at ORT, so I was going to have to buy a book full price when I could have been getting a sale book. I also hate big books - too many paperbacks are just too big to read comfortably - they are stiff and long and don't fit between my tummy and the seat in front of me on the plane (OK for the skinny ones, but not me!) So when I found a book that only cost R104 and was short in size, I bought it.

What a delight - it tells the story of the descendents of the March sisters in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. It incorporates letters from Jo, Meg and Amy and even seems to have bits of the actual text from some of the books. The girls in the book, Emma, Lulu and Sophie are all so engaging in their own way, and their mon, Fee (short for Josephine) is just like someone I know. The book is real chick-lit but I loved it.


It made me think about my family sagas - like the story of my great gradparents, Jimmy and Annie Mann, who were maried in a mock ceremony in Scotland, only to find that the marriage was legal. But as it was love at first sight, they were happy to get married in front of the dominee and set out for a life in South Africa. Or my grandparents, George and Dorothy Waddington, who had to rush from the ship in Durban to the church, as the long sea passage for her from England meant that their "banns" had almost expired. And who went from Durban to Ladysmith by train, stopping in Mooi River, where she looked out and said "I want to live here someday." And she did for more than 60 years.

I wonder what they passed on to me. I know my hands look like Grannymama's (Dorothy), and I am as impatient with people who are dense as she was, but what did I inherit from Annie? Was she outspoken? Did she enjoy spending time with her daughters? Did she miss her mother when she left Dundee, Scotland to settle in Dundee, Natal? Did she ever get to go home again? - I know she died when my Granny was young, so maybe she didn't.

I wish I had a set of stories like Little Women to tell me about my family - letters and stories and a history that filled in all the gaps. Will my children want to know about my grandparents - and especially my grandmothers? Maybe it's time to write down all the things I remember - and collect together the family memories. Then their children will have something to remember.