Ebb and Flow of Life
On 02/13/06 we lost a great lady after a gallant fight.
My mother Dorothy, David and Cindy's grandmother, died age 90.I am sure she would appreciate all of her family including the in laws, signing the guest book on her memorial.We plan a small tribute in March.
(http://www.legacy.com/NYTimes/DeathNotices.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=16816262)
Perhaps the LDS Church has a point that you need to understand you roots to understand the ebb and flow of life and come to terms with your own life.
I believe that Dorothy is immortalized in David Cindy and their children. But at times like this I sometimes look back to look forward. Perhaps the reunion in Connecticut for our 40th anniversary was a part of that as we waited for Dorothy to die.
She was the last of her family of 13 brothers and sisters who lived through some of the most horrible times, 1885-2006. The Russian persecution, the Boer war, WW1 & 11, the South African Apartheid era that nearly cost me all of you, twice.
As her nephew Milton said, it was a blessing she passed away, because he visited her when his father died in the same home age 100, he said that she was cerebrate.
But a lot of good has come from that family that lives on in addition to our North American bastion.
Milton above, Past President of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. His Brother Arnold, a famous barrister there.
Diminutive brother, Abraham, was a dispatch rider in WW11 who survived this dangerous volunteer assignment which had a life expectancy below that of paratroopers.
Nephew Alan was the President of NUSAS, (National Union of South African Students) an organization comparable to the Black NUSAS led by Stephen Biko, one of the fathers of the SA revolution, Whilst at medical school Biko became involved with NUSAS. But the union was dominated by white liberals and failed to represent the needs of black students, so Biko resigned in 1969 and founded the South African Students' Organisation (SASO). Both subsequently banned by the government.
Alan is now Editor of the first magazine jointly run by a Black and a White journalist.
He reminded me the other day that my father worked behind the scenes against the SA goverment long after the Communist campaign failed in 1947.
Lionel as you remember was a self taught lawyer. After working for his "Uncle" as Joseph Urdang & Co, Stephanie Urdang's father's firm, (You met her at the 40th), he worked for many years in the 60s for a law firm, Frank Bernard & Joffe.
This firm worked for the ANC and Nelson Mandela in both helping in his defense at the infamous Rivonia trials that jailed Mandela and many of my fathers contemporaries as well as his subsequent release.
Alan came across a photo of Bernard of my father's boss, with Bram Fischer in one of the Mandela books, setting out on a 1960s visit from Robben Island.
Bram was a celebrated "Criminal" for his work to topple the government, and winner of the Lenin Peace Price. The picture was one of the last before he went underground for over a decade.
Now we can close the book on South Africa. There are no ancestors left.
But I would urge you never to forget these people who gave us our North American roots by inspiring our thoughts beyond SA encouraging us to educate ourselves in order to be able to leave and have a real family in a free country.
Just as we were only inspired to find roots because our children asked questions, you might feel the same way. But keep the tradition alive by passing it on.
You don't need to feel love for these people, but we all owe them for our freedom.
My mother Dorothy, David and Cindy's grandmother, died age 90.I am sure she would appreciate all of her family including the in laws, signing the guest book on her memorial.We plan a small tribute in March.
(http://www.legacy.com/NYTimes/DeathNotices.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=16816262)
Perhaps the LDS Church has a point that you need to understand you roots to understand the ebb and flow of life and come to terms with your own life.
I believe that Dorothy is immortalized in David Cindy and their children. But at times like this I sometimes look back to look forward. Perhaps the reunion in Connecticut for our 40th anniversary was a part of that as we waited for Dorothy to die.
She was the last of her family of 13 brothers and sisters who lived through some of the most horrible times, 1885-2006. The Russian persecution, the Boer war, WW1 & 11, the South African Apartheid era that nearly cost me all of you, twice.
As her nephew Milton said, it was a blessing she passed away, because he visited her when his father died in the same home age 100, he said that she was cerebrate.
But a lot of good has come from that family that lives on in addition to our North American bastion.
Milton above, Past President of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. His Brother Arnold, a famous barrister there.
Diminutive brother, Abraham, was a dispatch rider in WW11 who survived this dangerous volunteer assignment which had a life expectancy below that of paratroopers.
Nephew Alan was the President of NUSAS, (National Union of South African Students) an organization comparable to the Black NUSAS led by Stephen Biko, one of the fathers of the SA revolution, Whilst at medical school Biko became involved with NUSAS. But the union was dominated by white liberals and failed to represent the needs of black students, so Biko resigned in 1969 and founded the South African Students' Organisation (SASO). Both subsequently banned by the government.
Alan is now Editor of the first magazine jointly run by a Black and a White journalist.
He reminded me the other day that my father worked behind the scenes against the SA goverment long after the Communist campaign failed in 1947.
Lionel as you remember was a self taught lawyer. After working for his "Uncle" as Joseph Urdang & Co, Stephanie Urdang's father's firm, (You met her at the 40th), he worked for many years in the 60s for a law firm, Frank Bernard & Joffe.
This firm worked for the ANC and Nelson Mandela in both helping in his defense at the infamous Rivonia trials that jailed Mandela and many of my fathers contemporaries as well as his subsequent release.
Alan came across a photo of Bernard of my father's boss, with Bram Fischer in one of the Mandela books, setting out on a 1960s visit from Robben Island.
Bram was a celebrated "Criminal" for his work to topple the government, and winner of the Lenin Peace Price. The picture was one of the last before he went underground for over a decade.
Now we can close the book on South Africa. There are no ancestors left.
But I would urge you never to forget these people who gave us our North American roots by inspiring our thoughts beyond SA encouraging us to educate ourselves in order to be able to leave and have a real family in a free country.
Just as we were only inspired to find roots because our children asked questions, you might feel the same way. But keep the tradition alive by passing it on.
You don't need to feel love for these people, but we all owe them for our freedom.
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