FAMILY MATTERS

By a strange turn of fate, Sarah Raal is related to my wife

Marthinette. Sarah was her grandfather’s sister and her mother’s aunt. After the war Sarah married and had 2 children. She moved to Cape Town and is buried in the Maitland cemetery.

Marthinette never met her but did meet her daughter several times. She often visited Olievenfontein as a child. She recalls a beautiful farmhouse with a tennis court, a schoolroom, a sparkling fountain and a water furrow serving abundant fruit orchards with quince, apple and pear orchards.

Olievenfontein was sold some years ago. It is now used for breeding merino sheep and the farmhouse has been turned into a guest house.