- Renee Finn -
Pat, née Long, was born on the 20 March 1930 in Muizenberg, Cape Town. She attended school at the Star of the Sea Convent, St James and was a keen English scholar whose particular love was for poetry. She achieved the highest marks in the Western Cape for English in her Matric year.
After leaving school she worked for M Bertish and Co. in their advertising department and from her office window she watched the arrival and departure of the Union Castle liners and dreamt of sailing away one day on her honeymoon. Pat was already active in the Anglican Church community, serving as Secretary of the Young People’s Fellowship at her parish in Plumstead.
Pat and Keith met on a blind date at a friend’s 21st birthday party and discovered they shared interests in hiking, sport and mountain climbing. Weekends would often find them boarding a steam train in Plumstead at 5.00am, heading for Cape Town station, where they would catch a bus to Kloofnek and then climb up Table Mountain. Keith, with a twinkle in his eye, remembers Pat had extremely good legs for climbing and dancing!
Some Saturday afternoons Pat watched Keith as he played rugby, which was followed by pies and beer at their favourite pub before they went dancing. Keith was still studying at UCT to become a Chartered Accountant, when, after two years of courting, they were married at Christ Church, Kenilworth on the 22nd of May, 1954. Pat’s dream came true when they sailed from Cape Town on the Dunnottar Castle, bound for Tilbury Docks, London.
Their honeymoon took them to Scotland, where Keith’s father had been born, and where the country folk could hardly be understood. They bought a tandem and cycled throughout Europe for three months. Keith found the pedalling became tiring when he discovered he was pedalling for 2 ½ people, and decided to bring Pat home. Their family grew as the years passed and they had three sons and a daughter.
After Keith retired and they were on a visit to George, Pat expressed an interest in visiting Prince Albert. They stayed in one of Alta Rossouw’s houses for the grand sum of R10 pppn, which pleased Keith’s Scot’s purse. Within a short time they bought their house for R28 000.00 and started their new, busy life in the village. The next seventeen years saw them involved in many activities.
When Pat was suddenly diagnosed with cancer in August and transferred to Tygerberg Hospital, she bravely accepted the fact that her life was drawing to a close.
One night she and Keith recalled their younger days together and even sang some ribald songs, adapting one to their present circumstances. A nurse came to listen and then ran off to gather her colleagues to “come and hear what the two old people are singing:”
Walking down 5th Avenue
She says: “Honey have a sniff, have a sniff on me
Honey have a sniff, sniff on me!”
So ashes to ashes and dust to dust,
If the coke don’t get you
then the morphine must,
“Honey have a sniff, have a sniff on me
Honey have a sniff, sniff on me!”
Pat died quietly on 21st August 2008. A memorial service was held for her at Christ Church, Kenilworth, where she and Keith had been wed and where they worshipped as a family for many years.
Their friends in Prince Albert joined the family in a service of thanksgiving for Pat at the NG Kerk four days later. We give thanks for Pat’s life among us and pray for Keith and their children as they feel her absence and remember her with love.
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