DE GRENDEL
WINNER BEST
FREE NEWSPAPER IN SA
THE GIFT THAT GROWS POINSETTIA
Electricity Cost Hurting Your Pocket ?
WAS 79.95
NOW
49.95
Save at least R 500 pm with a Solar Water Heater from only
BLACK POT COVER
WAS 94.95
R 399 pm Tel. 0861 115 115
NOW
49.95
INDOOR PLANT
www.mrsola.co.za
Offers valid until 10 December 2017. While stocks last.
X1U5N5ND-AL061217
Woensdag, 6 Desember 2017 | Tel: 021 910 6500 | epos: nuus@tygerburger.co.za
@TygerBurger
TygerBurger
PAULINE KAPLAN: RETIRING AS SECRETARY OF BOSMANSDAM PRIMARY AFTER 35 YEARS
Kaplan calls it a day CARINA ROUX
W
henever people were surprised to hear she was still at Bosmansdam Primary School, Pauline Kaplan (84) would joke: “I’m a slow learner”. But now, after 35 years in which she has seen former learners’ children and even their children’s children pass through the school, this beloved secretary is calling it a day. Kaplan and her late husband, Max, moved to Bothasig 50 years ago in 1967. All four their children and five grandchildren attended the school and Kaplan served on the school committee. The school was established during the pioneer days of Bothasig. “There were only a few families and all attended school here,’’ she says. Tragedy struck in 1982 when one of the two secretaries of the school drowned in the Goodwood swimming pool. Kaplan received a phone call from then principal, Jan Botes, asking whether she would like to come and work at the school. “I said I’d love to.” Back then secretaries were not high on the list of priorities of the education department and they had a tiny office, she says. She witnessed how things changed over the years to become more like a business. She thanks God for giving her the job and says she did not know much when she started. When the computer age came she wanted to learn it all. “I was computer illiterate but I slowly learned to adjust.” At the school the teachers became like her family. They would come and ask for Bible verses. She would encourage them and pray for them. “It was far more than just being a secretary. The Lord said to me, be a mother.” She will miss this human contact, but feels the Lord is telling her it is time to close the door. It’s a struggle, she admits, as she is still blessed with good health. For Kaplan this career was a calling. Recently this Bible verse came to her: “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord for He abled me because he counted me faithful putting me into this ministry” (1 Timothy 1:12). God has equipped her and blessed her, she says, as she recalls how her extended school family supported her after Max passed away 11 years ago.
Pauline Kaplan (84) is retiring as secretary of Bosmansdam Primary after 35 years. PHOTO: CARINA ROUX
She worked under five principals and had a good relationship with all. Lately she’s only been working three days a week from 09:00 to 12:00 and already misses her relationship with the children, being there only a few hours a day. The school has
kept her on to teach her replacement, she says. One is not always aware of the impact of what you do, says Kaplan. Last week at the school’s prize-giving ceremony, a mother, whom she complimented on her son’s per-
formance, told her that the reason she had decided to enrol all her children there was because Kaplan had taken her on a tour around the premises on the first day she came to visit the school. V To page 2.
THE GIFT THAT GROWS GIFT CARDS AVAILABLE ONLINE & INSTORE FUCHSIA
WAS 49.95
BONSAI GIFT PACK
NOW
19.95
SUCCULENT IN OWL POT 8CM
PLASTIC JACINTA HANGING BOWL
WAS 99.95
WAS 29.95
NOW
14.95
WAS 139.95
www.stodels.com
NOW 69.95
MOTH ORCHID 2STEM
POINSETTIA
NOW
NOW
WAS 179.95
119.95
59.95
49.95
POT COVER (AVAILABLE IN WHITE/BLUE/GREY)
BLACK POT COVER
NOW
NOW
WAS 129.95
NOW
INDOOR PLANT
WAS 79.95
INDOOR PLANT
69.95
Offers valid until 10 December 2017. While stocks last.
WAS NOW 19.95 19.95 39.95 19.95 24.95 9.95
MARGARET ROBERTS 27.95 LAVENDER STRAWBERRY 39.95 ROSEMARY TERRACOTTA POT 15CM
WAS 94.95
INDOOR PLANT
49.95
Bellville 021 919 1106 | Milnerton 021 528 4000 | Kenilworth 021 671 9050 | Constantia 021 794 2221 | Somerset West 021 852 7400 X1U5XL6M-AL061217