Ilse Margot Gerstenberg was born on the 24th of January 1933 to Fritz and Frieda Gerstenberg in Berlin. She was the older of two girls, Annelie being 6 years younger. Ilse started school on 1 September 1939 which was also the start of the Second World War. After her schooling she wanted to study music but her father would not allow it. She therefore studied bookkeeping and eventually went to work in Hamburg where she met my father Helmut. In 1957 they married and in 1958 Ilse and Helmut left Germany and came to South Africa by ship with 13 suitcases. They settled in Germiston on the East Rand.
Two daughters were born from this marriage, Ingrid and one and a half years later Rita. Rita died very suddenly in December 1990 at the age of 25 from a brain tumour. This devastated Ilse and took her a long time to get over. Three years later in December 1993 her granddaughter Bianca was born and Ilse often said that Bianca walked in Rita’s footsteps. Sadly, the marriage to Helmut ended in 1981. Ilse then met Werner and together they moved from Johannesburg to the Western Cape where they built one of the first houses in Betty’s Bay. Unfortunately, Werner had emphysema which he could no longer cope with and in 1991 took his own life. Ilse then met Carl and they got married in 1996. Together they moved to St. Johannes Gardens. She always said the times with Carl were the happiest years of her life. Regrettably, Carl had heart problems and died on the operating table in 2006.
After Carl’s death mom travelled a great deal. Some of her travels included Bianca and me – one of which was a cruise to St. Helena Island which is where the ship docked when she and Helmut came out to South Africa. She also undertook five trips to Australia to visit our very close family friends who had emigrated there. Mom and I also did three pilgrimages together. Mom was very generous and giving, even when she had little, she gave to others. She loved classical music and had a collection of about 1000 CD’s and DVDs which we donated to the Bellville library for the music hub they are building.
She had many hobbies, such as knitting, sewing, card making, scrapbooking, beading and jewellery making. She had a lady’s group where they did crafts together and she helped bake for the bazaars. She often had “the grandchildren” around to try out new recipes. Her biggest passion was yoga, and she was the yoga queen. She was very proud of the fact that she was still so supple at 91 and an inspiration to others. Her favourite saying when people did not believe her age was: my birth certificate says so. Then she would say that she gives thanks every day to our good Lord for health, fitness and daily bread. Ilse was very thankful that she still had the privilege of being a greatgrandmother to Christo who was born four years ago in October.
Ingrid (daughter of Ise Lemcke)
