It’s December 27th, 2011. The frenetic rush of Christmas is over, New year’s eve looms on the horizon. There are ships on the horizon at the edge of my balcony in Sea Point – oil rigs, container ships and even the famous “World ship” that carries rich people around their world at their leisure with their annual levy of a million Dollars per apartment. It has chosen Cape Town as it’s docking site. I see their lights reflected on the sea at nights, flickering at the stars above them. There’s a baby on the horizon as well. She will be born January 4, 5 or 6th. I will track my perception of this impending horizon under the title: Grannydilla’s Diary.
My grandson Kieron named me “Grannydilla” after his favorite fruit, the passion fruit, otherwise named granadilla. It’s sweety-sour with a healthy dose of tart. A very unaristocratic fruit, that creeps up walls and gives of itself freely when it has the right environment – sun, water and shelter from the wind. The passion part comes once you have tasted one on a hot summer’s day…mmm.

I know this baby only in utero. Her mom’s tum grows bigger by the day. Angela is my son’s life partner – they have been together for 10 years. Their lifestyle has to date been, well…urban with a dose of mountain, simple, musical, light and very free. Children were not part of the formula. Life had other ideas, and most recently Dan our son, has proudly become the owner of a Chicco Quatro ( which is not a four wheel drive car). In fact, he has no car, his wheels are at the bottom of roller blades. His baby though, needs a quarto 4 wheel drive, souped up buggy (here they call them prams) with a temperature sensor , knobs and whistles we are still reading the manual about, and did I mention…sits in our living room with SV panache. ( their’s is too tiny – his musical equipment takes up all the free space in their flat…mmm)

Angela is at Groote Schuur Hospital. She has been in hospital for the past 3 weeks and will continue with enforced bed rest until the birth. Hers is a high-risk pregnancy, she has placenta previa, which means the placenta is down under the cervix instead of being at the side of her uterus. If this ruptures ( it is very fragile), it puts the baby at risk. How to describe Angela at Groote Schuur? In few words? OK I’ll try…serene, grateful for smoothies and edible food (government hospital budget), uncomplaining at cold showers, cellphone rings at all hours in her ward with other women. She seems to be the only white woman in the maternity ward of this hospital – we definitely stand out when we visit. The place is clean, seems well run and the medical care is excellent. She has no medical aid which is why she is in the government hospital – to pay for a private care would have broken our bank and she insisted otherwise. She has recently graduated as a doctor of Chinese Medicine and this whole experience had intrigued her no end.

My insight for today: Things take time to gestate.  “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens” This season for me as grandmother, requires deep preparation and reflection.  How to welcome this angel into my being?  How to hold the process safe?  How to nourish them at many levels? How to ask God for help? (oops, got the message)

A footnote as to what happened while i sat at my desk waxing profound…the chicken sausages burned on the braai!  life has it’s own sense of humor.
More after our hospital visit today, sans the BarBQ sausages of course…