KNYSNA: Remembering the 2017 fires - We all know what it's like to lose a treasured friend, and the distraught feeling you are left with when this happens. For one resident of Belvidere Park this is exactly what happened following the fires of 7 June 2017… but it might not entirely be what readers think it is.
Lesley Satchel of Knysna tells how her mother Grace McDonald was remarkably moved from place to place five times during the evacuation of the Belvidere community.
“You published my mom’s story of being evacuated five times on 7, 8 and 9 June last year. She was nearly 97 at that stage, probably the oldest evacuee in the fires of Knysna.
'Nice little story'
"She is now nearly 98, and we have a nice little story to tell," Satchell says.
“When she left her room at Belvidere Park care centre, she had a very precious mohair knee rug with her. She had bought it on holiday in Scotland with Dad, and she always loved her little blanket.
“She seemed to have it with her going from the Brenton Hall to the Brenton Blu Hotel and could have had it down on the beach where she waited, in the cold, and furious fires, for more than four hours to be rescued by a wonderful 4x4 driver who took her to Sedgefield. However, she was heartbroken when she found herself without it at the Masithandane facility where she spent another day or two," Satchell relays.
Same, but not quite
“She was offered a substitute, Cape mohair, which was very similar, and used that gratefully for 10 months.
“But then a miracle happened! A kind person from Brenton dropped her precious Scottish mohair rug at the Belvidere care centre just a few weeks ago. She recognised it immediately when it was brought to her room, and welcomed it back like a long-lost friend, which it was," says Satchell.
“We don’t know who had the blanket or where it was found, it certainly had no sea sand on it, and this thoughtful person has made a very old lady very happy indeed. Thank you!”
According to Satchel, she was told by her mother’s carers that once her mother saw the old blanket she immediately uttered, “That’s my blanket!"
The grateful Satchell ends off saying she would "love to thank this person” and adds, “We have no idea how the person knew where to bring the knee rug, or even exactly what happened to it.”
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