And so Father God as we commit the body of this our brother Jim Sweetnham to the earth until the day of the resurrection we pray Father that…” said Pastor Dan Tippler I am reminded that the saintly man who we are burring was a distant relative of my wife. My Name is Neville and this is not a story about the man we are burring but rather about a community the community in which I grew to manhood in one I left as a young man and have returned to in later years.

I was the 19^th child of a gentleman of fortune the date of my birth has always been in dispute for the records office burnt to the ground one night way back in 1944 ever since then the official date of my birth has been put as February 1940 I however am more sure that the correct date was the 17^th of February 1939. It is not just a vanity that makes me believe this for I have certain memories which place my birth in the earlier year. Port Alfred is one of those towns which one cannot easily forget for its idyllic ocean views and the fact that it is steeped in the rich history of the first 1820 settlers make it a jewel in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.

Life in the 1940’s was not easy during the war food was scares and I can well remember the dark brown bread which was made from the worst of the wheat available to our parents.

Because of this I have vowed never to treat food with disrespect and have my entire life endeavor to appreciate each meal that was placed before me. Because food is made with loving hands and I appreciate the fact that some one has taken the time to prepare the food.

Washing the dirty laundry in public

Okay Colin then it is agreed that Timmy will stay with you for a month in Port Elizabeth while he looks for work” I said “ hat will be fine” said my cousin Colin Mould “Okay the talk to you later” I said cheerio Neville he said before I put the phone down.

It is a strange thing a relationship between a father and a son. my son Timothy he has a talent for finding a job but is equally bad at keeping it he has seldom managed to keep a job for more then a few month despite this he is my son and I love him dearly I have two other sons and I love them all equally yet there is a special place in my heart for this young man as he is my eldest son he has a spark of intelligent which I have seldom seen despite the fact that there were complications with his birth and he was diagnosed with dyslexia he has a thought process that confuses me at times. He has a habit of asking questions which I do not know the answers to and I am not sure what to say thus I remain silent much to his discomfort; my father on the other hand was an unusual man a hard man a man who did not suffer fools lightly. Billy Mould for such was his name was a hard drinking man born in the last years of the 19^th century of poor Irish immigrant stock... Grahamstown at that time was just becoming a moderately sized city and the Irish immigrants just of the boats found that there were opportunities for business which they could never have aspired to rise to in the emerald isle yet here in Africa they began to rise. My father married young and settled into work in Grahamstown and was content to raise his family in this the city of saints however the first world war intervened and soon my father and his brother Harry where of to France to fight the Germans the end result was that they like many other south African spent a number of miserable days in Delville wood Belgium they say that when the guns stopped firing there was not a tree left the wood had for all intents and purposes been reduced to match sticks.

Returning from the war my father found employment as a grounds man at the Fort England Hospital here he continued to raise his m\by now large family there is an interesting law in the old Cape Colony that if you have more then 12 children the state will provide you with a farm. It might be that he was aiming at this when he met my mother here I must beg the readers indulgence while I state a few facts to make this story more understandable you have heard me say that he had married young this is true for Billy Mould was a man of particular needs he married Kate Corbett round about 1910 whom I shall from this point refer to as mother, she was not my mother but known by this name because as the years passed it became apparent that my father was a vigorous and vital lover not wanting to take to the practice of frequenting brothels he hit upon a novel idea of taking in his bed a younger woman(my mother) whom would become part of the home and take her place in their lives thus the two woman and the man became a family unit. This was considered at the time quite scandalous however they lived and happily for man years my mother Margaret was known to all as (Mommy as apposed to Kate Corbett who was known as Mother) brought into the world five living children I been the second of year children and the nineteenth child of my father. It is remarkable to think that I could have ended up as a child of my eldest step brother Charlie for he was the first of the Mould men that he she came into contact with it was I believe shear chance that my father was able to charm the young woman away from his son. After all she was not a sophisticated woman but a plain girls from a small provincial backwater what did she know of big town ways? Thus she became the concubine to an older married man.

I have mentioned that my father was a heavy drinker and this was true it seems he inherited the fondness for the bottle from his father who was an extremely tall man a strong salt of the earth type of man who seldom smiled but who provided for his family as best he could…

The published works of this writer are available **HERE **