To My Old Friends

8 August 2012

Dear Mrs. Tinky (Hopsing), Bugs, Serafina, Priscilla, Charlene, Martie, Hans, Maryke, and Santo,

It’s been a long time that I should have written to you all but the inspiration to write came only recently. This is why I am a little out of time to express some thoughts I had in mind.

Thinking back, thanks for having come to visit me, I know you have little time to spare because you work so much to earn your daily bread and for this your gesture was even more valuable. You brought me so many wonderful gifts, nothing expensive, but to me very precious anyway.

With which words can I express the joy I felt in eating the famous Milk Tart that you, Martie, especially made for me? What a nice surprise! A taste of flavors almost forgotten, of which the memory had been dissolved in the far away distant past, a reminder of my mother and how she used to often prepare this milk tart, a reminder of our lavishing brunches that we often ate together before our outings in and around Natal. With your presence you managed to dig up old memories half forgotten and almost lost.

The old photos neatly arranged on a CD, the few words spoken in Afrikaans, to have heard news you brought me of your families and our old friends, to talk about old times, all this threw me back in time to the days when we all lived together in Pietermaritzburg. The feeling at the end of your visits was that as if I had seen the film of our teenage lives, with the beautiful Pietermaritzburg setting in the background, the wonderful actors and the strong binds that held and still hold us together.

I too had many photos which, in a moment of despair burnt up in a bonfire before coming back to Italy, in a useless effort to avoid that a feeling of homesickness and sadness would overwhelm me. In spite of this misguided attempt these feelings were my companions for a long, long time after having left Pietermaritzburg for good. That CD not only dug up my old memories but gave Marta a chance to see me when I was young and healthy, how I dressed, my old motorbike of which I so often spoke to her about, the games we played, our friends, the places where we lived. As you all know, if things were left to Marta’s doing, we would have taken all our belongings and put up house in SA, where on the contrary I always refused to go back because nothing would have been the same as before.

A deep thanks for having given us this opportunity of going back in time, because one of the setbacks I had was that I could not show her as I was before we met. The precious CD is taken out of the “safe” and shown when we like to see it again and to speak of SA, which is often.

Not only do I appreciate your visits and the things you brought for me, but one of the greatest ongoing gift is the fact that you have made possible the realization of my wish to open an English website. You are building something extraordinary, vital and true, something unusual that goes beyond my biggest expectations, a place which is becoming the house of our memories of SA, of our common experiences, of our life stories, that’s why I chose ”onsstories” which means our stories and on the other hand our never ending stories.

Thanks to Priscilla and Bugs that their efforts make everything work so well. Without your enthusiasm this thing would have never got off the ground and in this way you spurred me to do even more. I know that it’s not a burden for you because you do this willingly and with affection, but to me all this is priceless because I think that there is no gift more precious than one’s own time that a person can give to another.

My friends, your attention, your ability to understand, your great sensibility and the consideration that you have for me is a wonderful cocktail for my heart and my mind.

Hopsing (Tinky)

Thanks to you all for having brought SA in our house. For making us feel that SA is not so far after all, and to have shown me that the great feeling of affection and closeness which made up our youth has never changed in all this time and it keeps us tightly bound, as if the decades had never gone by.

Mrs. Tinky, we all have you in our hearts and wish you a happy birthday for your 80th birthday. We wish you the best, everything you desire and a lot of health. We hope that one of the next birthdays will be celebrated all together, be it in SA or in Italy, in any case with a very big party.

You all are always on my mind
Your pal
Mauro

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