A simple tale of grace

Writer: Elaine Davie.

PHOTOS: Clare Wise de Wet, Wise Photographics

Nobantu Magdeline Ponoane lives in Zwelihle. She is 71 years old and from her meagre pension takes care of four live-in grandchildren. This is not an unusual profile; there are many, many Magdelines living in Zwelihle. What makes her story unique is the series of events which have recently unfolded around this doughty gogo, changing her life in a fundamental way.

Magdeline gets her eyes tested by Luzelke van Heerden at Village Optometrist in Eastcliff, who found that she only had 10% – 20% total vision due to advanced cataracts.

Magdeline always loved working with her hands and in order to augment her income, she taught herself to crochet a range of attractive and practical products – hats, bags, mats – out of recycled plastic packets, which she sold at the Youth Café in Zwelihle. Then, last year, she heard that the Living Tapestry project was looking for embroiderers in her community, and she was quick to sign up. “I didn’t know how to embroider,” she confesses, “but my hands know how to learn.”

Magdeline about to see clearly for the first time in years as the bandage comes off her right eye.

Click below to read more. (The full article can be found on page 19 )