Gallery Samples Stories of our Ancestors | Page 78
English parents and her sister Irma with her wealthy husband and title. I didn’t experience any
of these people other than Jessie and Irma myself and I am building a story on what Denis told
me and the influence that this family had on him.
Aunty Irma (later known as Granny Irma) was Denis’ mentor in many ways; he admired her
and her beautiful thatched ‘dwelling' in South West Africa enormously. I asked him why he
admired her arrogance as she hadn’t done anything praise-worthy or achieved anything at all
as far as I could see. His reply was that Aunty Irma didn’t have to do anything, the fact that she
believed she was great was enough! How very positive is that belief; believe you’re great and
that’s what people will believe you to be. When I tried that little trick it didn’t work so well; I
just didn’t have the nous for it!
Aunty Irma’s first marriage was no better and lots worse that Jessie’s marriage. In fact all she
seemed to have done in her life was to firstly embark on a brief and unsuccessful attempt at
nursing, then secondly, had a wretched, abusive marriage and divorce and then thirdly, a
marriage to ‘Count’ van Zanten, a very nice Dutch architect who didn’t use his title and neither
did anyone else. Irma never had children, the sad reason being that her first husband had killed
her infant in utero by his physical abuse, leaving her unable to have more children. This
naturally must have affected her badly but it also led her to believe that her niece and
namesake Irma (Jessie’s first child) should be given to her! She stated that Jessie wa ? ??[????[]?H[?H?[ ?[?[?\?XHY8?&X\??YY[?^x?&H[???[?]?H] H\?XHH]X???] \??[??H[?Y?H [???[?\??YK?Y?\?[ ?H ?X\??Y \?XHYY ? ?\??YH H?[Z[ B??[?[??X[ HH?]? [Y\? ?? ?\?[ H] ?\??&]^ X?[?? ??]X????\??YH ? ?X?\ ???]O?B??[Y]?H H?????\??Yx?&\??X?HY ??H ?Y[? ??H?[Y]?YB?\?H?[ [?\? ?[?H ??] \?[????Y^\? ?]\?XH[??[?[???H
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