There are some days that one never forgets. What happened, where you were, what you were doing and what followed. I was standing in my kitchen starting to get supper ready when I heard the news that Queen Elizabeth II had died. It got me thinking about how, in my life, I've lived history. It's not something one thinks about as a six-year old, sitting on the floor, listening to a crackly radio broadcast as the first human walked on the moon.
Similarly, when the 1976 "riots" broke out in South Africa and a year later, Bantu Stephen Biko was murdered on 12 September. I was at boarding school and television didn't exist in South Africa then. Because of that, and because at school, unless you were a senior (I was not in 1976/7), the only source of news was the local newspaper. Every week day, a copy of the Daily Despatch arrived on a table in the common room. After school, almost ritualistically, I'd read it. Although I didn't know it at the time, it was one of the few South African newspapers to document - in detail - the inquest into Biko's death.
That, with hindsight, was my first significant September date. There are others.
Not actually a royalist, but...
I'm not a royalist and my views of monarchies are conflicted. We have monarchies in South Africa. Nelson Mandela was a member of the amaXhosa royal family. Here, too, the notion is contested and, frankly, a bit confusing. Unlike in Britain, they are quite parochial and play no role, formally, in international relations. Interestingly though, just today, the recently installed King of the Zulus extended an olive branch to their former colonisers.
I did, however, grow up with an English mother who, after her own mother's death, found a book that documented the family's tree back to landed gentry and royalty. She claimed. I don't know what happened to the book. I wonder, now, whether that story is apocryphal. It does, however, explain why I remember November the 14th 1973. I was 10, it was a hot, early afternoon in the kitchen at home. Making a million sandwiches. There was some or other school event later that day. My memory isn't sure, but says that it was a prize giving. What my memory is very sure of, is why the radio was on, and there was no conversation: Princess Anne was getting married. My mother was hanging on every word.
Some eight years later, and Charles married Diana, I was at university. A bunch of us piled into a friend's car and headed to our house. When my parents came home for lunch our lounge was bursting at the seams with young people, glued to the television, watching the royal wedding. We were all - to a boy and girl - roughly the same age as the girl-woman who became the People's Princess.
September, 16 years later
As vividly as I remember that July day, I remember the morning of Sunday, September 1st, 1997. I had gone through to the kitchen to make the ritual cup of tea and turned on the radio for the news. It was heart stopping. Princess Diana was dead. She was only two years older than I, and over the intervening years, my empathy for a woman who on that 1981 day, had no idea of the poison chalice she'd been served, had grown. My own marriage at the time, was on the rocks. That she seemed to be getting a second chance made it all the more tragic. To me, anyway.
Then, five days later, Mother Theresa died. Yes, she was old, but I felt it in a way I hadn't for Princess Diana. That news was buried in the public outcry, controversy and pomp an ceremony that surrounded the Princess's funeral. My memory sent me back to that day in 1988 when I'd had the privilege of meeting a saint.
Living history
Little did I realise, following the Biko story as a 14 year old, that the newspaper I was reading was part of history, documenting history. I think it's really something that dawns on one with hindsight. As do the ironies of life. Like, for example, from whom I heard about Nelson Mandela's imminent release in 1990. I wrote about that here.
There are other dates that remain indelibly in my memory, and one of these is 9/11. The Husband and I weren't yet married. We were at work - on a joint project. Not long after lunch, a colleague said her mother had phoned to tell her that an aeroplane had flown into a building in New York. My initial reaction was one of utter disbelief. It was in the early days of the internet and I had a dial up connection in the office. I simply could not connect to any of the international news sites to verify what sounded like a bad story line.
By the time we went home - earlier than usual - we new "it" had happened. We unlocked the front door, and for the first time in our shared life, dropped everything and turned on the TV. How long we sat watching that horror unfold and repeat, I can't remember. I do remember a sense of incredulity that something unimaginable was happening and that the world would never be the same again. Nor is it.
An internationally insignificant, significant September day
21 September 2002
There is a third September day that I shall never forget, and for very different reasons. It didn't hit the international headlines, but twenty years later, my memories of that day are as vivid as they were then. It feels like yesterday and in others, it's a lifetime ago. Only because we've made a life. It's been an eventful one and, I'd like to think, a happy one. May we have as many more happy and healthy years together.
Back to the Queen
Over the last week or so, I've been wondering about my fascination with happenings in the United Kingdom. I am. Anyone who has lost a parent or someone close to them, can only but empathise with the family's grief. Could I grieve publicly, stoically and as gracefully as that? No. I didn't. When my mother died, I took one of her friends to church. I'd been holding it together for my father. Condolences from my mother's friends and comparative strangers to me, and from the pulpit, sent me into a paroxysm of weeping that I could not control. Nothing very stoic or graceful in that.
The ancient ritual, pomp and ceremony fascinate me. That some of them, like the coronation, hark back to prehistory in a modern world keep me glued. The people, the scenes and the buildings fascinate me and while there's a part of me that feels a bit like voyeur, this is history unfolding in real time, and scenes I doubt, I shall ever see again.
Until next time, be well
Fiona
The Sandbag House
McGregor, South Africa
Photo: Selma
Post script
If this post might seem familiar, it's because I'm doing two things:
- re-vamping old recipes. As I do this, I am adding them in a file format that you can download and print. If you download recipes, buy me a coffee. Or better yet, a glass of wine....?
- and "re-capturing" nearly two years' worth of posts.
- From Wordpress, I use the Exxp Wordpress plugin. If this rocks your socks, click here or on on the image below to sign up.
- Join Hive using this link and then join us in the Silver Bloggers' community.
Original artwork: @artywink
- lastly, graphics are created using partly my own photographs and Canva.
Posted from my blog with Exxp : https://fionasfavourites.net/some-september-stuff/
I was just thinking about all the historical events I have seen in my lifetime. Though I have not been around quite as long as you have, I do also vividly recall a few of the events you have mentioned. Diana's death probably being the earliest.
I vividly remember the day I got back from school and seeing the 9/11 events unfold. Watching the second plane hit the second tower on live television. That memory seared into my mind. I still could not comprehend the tragedy I was viewing.
While I am also not a royalist, I cannot help but be fascinated as well. Just the history and backstory that all the ceremonies and pomp have is extremely interesting.
In more recent times, I believe it was around September when I began hearing of this virus originating in China. Little did I realise back then what an impact that would have on the world as a whole as the Corona virus swept across the globe.
Personally, I too have an important date in September. It seems we share a wedding month! My husband and I have been married nine years this month. And yet, it certainly doesn't feel that long. Times flies when you are with the one you love I guess, hehe. Congratulations to you both! May there be many more happy years together!
Oh, there are so many others I could have mentioned. It was hard to pick just those.
Happy anniversary to you, too, and may you have a long and happy life together!
It is no doubt that September had many significant events and tragedies which are hard to forget. I am not aware of the others but thanks to this, I have learnt more of what transpired years back.
September certainly was an eventful month Fiona, so many awful tragedies, and I remember each one like it was yesterday!
Lovely seeing your one happy and really big life-changing event, and a milestone year at that too!
Awesome #bom entry.
Thank you, Lizelle!
No doubt many significant dates and moments, I did not know that Mandela was part of a South African Monarchy, every day we learn something, I do not remember the wedding of the princess, but the news of her unhappy marriage and then the terrible news of her death, a woman who will not be forgotten, not only for her beauty and elegance, for all that she did and represented.
On September 11, I could not believe my eyes, it was terrible to see those people throwing themselves off those buildings and watching the towers fall.
And last but not least: about the personal event of September:
I hope you have many more years together you deserve it, excellent post a hug from Venezuela.
Thank you - and for your good wishes.
😘😘😘
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Much of what we can recall in detail really depends on our own circumstances and how that event impacts our own lives. When I hear of someone celebrating their 100th birthday, it makes me realize just how many things they have lived through.
It was good seeing someone include an event that was a joyous occasion. May you and your hubby have another 20 years together.
Indeed.
Thank you.
September a month to remember, so many events one needs to remember which ones affected us. Princess Diana for the fact her sons were both born in the same years as my own, my heart went out to them having to deal with so much confusion/trauma so young.
Each event here at home has made a marked change in our lives, after 1960 everything accelerated in a worse direction than previous years. I'm afraid the 'Mandela Honeymoon' is over, we have many more hard decision to make/be made.
Two major factors I do remember is Sir Winston Churchill passing away was the only time I saw my father cry openly. When Jan Smuts was not elected in the 1960 referendum whites only voted, once again we knew big change was looming which not many discussed.
Joh, Joan! Circles of life, hey?
I pray for the hard decisions. The sooner the better.
Cloak and dagger way of life, living with eyes in the back of your head is no life at all. Stay safe in your beautiful village taking care of each other.
Wow, woman.
You've seen and heard some things.
That sitting on the floor as a six year old hearing the crackly radio... brilliant. What a memory!
Did you hear him say it???
I have and, I have to say, they are mixed blessings. I was glad to confine myself - mostly - to September.
Yes, I would have. It was part of the broadcast, but 50+ years later, the mind plays tricks on one 😉
Well in my mind you win the coolest "I was there when".
Imagine hearing that over a crackling radio from the Moon... 👀
I am officially in awe of you.
Oh, the pressure... 🤣
And...
😁❤️
Hey there Fiona, have a happy September Equinox and may your Spring be inspiring.
Best wishes from the Garden Route.
And yours, too, Julian!
All the best from a very (berg) windy McGregor.