Guys and Girls…
I had this unique and extremely special opportunity to meet mamma and pappa Plonk this weekend in Namibia.
At least now I can sort of understand where his brain comes from… what awesome people to share a dinner table with… and again, he humbles me to a level I seldom get the opportunity to experience.
Thank you Jaco, for the kind words. And I apologise in advance for getting a little sentimental, but I might as well use this opportunity.
Some background on how this happened (I did not take my boyfriend to meet the parents!)… I was there in July and due to me deciding to not do a bunch of work while I’m there with the whole family, I decided to make second trip later, and then I would gift him my old (perfectly fine) 24V backup system. I wasn’t looking forward to driving the long trip solo, and I knew my friend was having a tough time at work. While looking at a nice sunset one evening, with my entire family, and somewhat medicated with a good whiskey, I figured it might be a good detox event, so I invited him to come along. Skipping some of the detail, he showed up in the end… and it seems “detox” is not a bad description of what it was.
So, about my father. He has stage 3 cancer. Has had it for 6 years now. In the beginning he was given 18 months (I didn’t know that until this weekend). This turned into “3 to 5 years, with medication”, and now we are in year 6. I have a strong feeling it is the last one. In fact, in some ways I hope it is the last one. The kind of cancer he has, and where it has spread to by now, has the potential to be painful towards the end. Like most people in our shoes, we are not scared of death, but we are a little scared that it is going to hurt. There are things worse than death.
In any case, sorry if this sounds a bit overly sweet, and technically this goes back further, to my grandfather. The stories that are retold about what happened, and what was decided, goes back generations. And probably this is just the next installment.
He was always a little different, ahead of the curve almost. The first solar install was in 1987! People actually thought he was a little crazy.
He put a new solar pump into a borehole that was known to have poor water (nitrate levels too high) because he knew it would freshen out in time. It did… a year later.
I credit him directly for getting me into this career path.
When he is gone, we will sing: Eens aan die einde van my lewe, sal ek van alle sorge vry, vir elke dag my hier gegewe, u hoër reiner loflied wy!
(Sorry, could not find a better video of the song, with all the verses).