Obituaries

Remembering Ms Pam van Dyk

It came as an enormous shock to us all that Pam van Dyk, our beloved Hostel Superintendent since April 1999, passed away on the evening of 26 December 2017 in the Constantiaberg Hospital. She had been diagnosed with acute leukaemia not even one month earlier.

Ms van Dyk attended Rustenburg from Grade 4 until Matric and, after school, graduated from UCT wanting to teach History, her passion. After a brief stint in the then Transvaal, she came back to Cape Town and started teaching at Wynberg Girls’ High School under Ms Urie. She was there for 18 years and left as Deputy Principal, Head of History and Hostel Superintendent. She was head-hunted a year or so later to join Rustenburg as Erinville’s Superintendent. She loved the idea of coming back to her old school and seeing what the hostel needed and where her expertise could be used.

Immediately Ms van Dyk commenced an upgrade programme from pest control and painting to adapting rules to create more of a homely feel within the hostel. Change takes time of course, but Ms van Dyk had a vision and believed in the possibility of creating an environment that was not governed by strict rules which denied the girls any form of freedom, as had been the case in the 1970s. Ms van Dyk spent her entire working life in education with teenage girls. She loved the girls and saw great potential in each and every one. She was extremely kind and patient and was prepared to listen. She would ponder over ideas and if there was at all a way to improve a situation, she would find it.

Ms van Dyk had an incredible sense of humour and so enjoyed laughing. She could see the funny side to everything. Few people aim to become a superintendent of a boarding school, but Ms van Dyk loved doing this work and found it enormously amusing that she landed up living in Ms Thomson’s flatlet!

Her spirit is still very much within the walls of Erinville. Ms van Dyk is remembered fondly by girls and parents alike, a truly unique lady.

Ms Karin Evans

Remembering Ms Elizabeth Williams

Ms Elizabeth Williams, known affectionately in hostel as Aunty Lisa, worked downstairs in the Duty Room, Sanctum and Common Room in the mornings and in the kitchen in the afternoons for 12 years.

She was found to have breast cancer in March 2017 and commenced with chemotherapy which continued throughout the year with all its associated ups and downs. Ms Williams was admitted to Groote Schuur towards the end of December and passed away in hospital on 30 December, four days after Ms van Dyk.

Ms Williams was a jolly person and was always singing hymns as she worked around the hostel. She loved her church and sang actively in the choir. We just needed to follow the singing and we would find her. She loved the girls and would often disappear off to the laundry and fold their washing from the tumble drier. Little touches in Sanctum or the Kitchenette that generally went unnoticed, were done by Ms Williams quietly and made the hostel a better place. She was very proud of Rustenburg and her association with it.

Ms Karin Evans