Number 93: Rachel and Michiel Katzef, parents of Golda Schkolne; Great, Great Grandparents of Yair and Maya, are reputed to be the first Wellington Jewish couple.

Michiel, I was told, had no close relations in South Africa. A distant relation Mr. Joffee / Jaffe, from Paarl, brought him out from Kupishok, Lithuania in 1903. At first Michiel stayed in a garage with a Mr. Kling. So poor, the story goes, that Michiel and Kling argued that the other was ink dipping the pen too often when writing home.

Michiel bought a horse and cart, made some money and brought out his wife Rachel and four children in 1906.

Maybe some family stories should remain within the family? Like: Michiel was so fanatically Kosher, he would not eat at his daughter Golda’s strictly Kosher home because she employed a servant.

Michiel continued “smousing” (peddling goods to remote customers) through his life, laying tefillin each morning next to his horse and cart.

Rachel ‘nee Locketz was reputed to be extremely kind – “a heart of gold”. In Lithuania, although poor herself, she baked and distributed kitkes to the poor on Erev Shabbat. In Wellington she often prepared free meals for travellers in its only Kosher Boarding House that she owned and ran. She did all the cooking, baking, housework herself – no servants. It was there that Grandpa Victor came sometimes for meals and first saw Golda, his wife to be.

Michiel and Rachel struggled and remained poor throughout their lifetime. Rachel passed away aged 63, 25/06/1932, buried in the now deserted, exposed Wellington Jewish Cemetery, as is Michiel “Hyman Michael”, died 16/12/1941.

Michiel’s father, Yegial / Jegeal, died in the 1918 Flu epidemic, not buried in the not yet established Wellington Jewish Cemetery.

I contemplate the Brass Container, on our mantelpiece, in which Rachel Katzef ‘nee Locketz mixed Jam for her guests, reflecting deeply and imagining how she led her life – her compassion; the hard-work, sustained discipline and struggle involved in singlehandedly running a business while raising her four children.

May the Memory of all our Wellington family be for a Blessing!