The Car Guard Chronicles

<p class="font_7">Vrede, Betty’s husband (see previous entry).</p>

<p class="font_7">Born in the war time 1939. “My Grandpa, who was&nbsp;in the war then, told my father to name me Vrede meaning peace. It was a time that peace was needed. Now as you can imagine throughout my life there wasn't much peace, I was teased at school, not only about my name but I also&nbsp; used to stutter” said Vrede.&nbsp; He said that if he could say three words without stuttering it would have been an utter miracle, he used to be very shy and would try and avoid people at all costs. “ Whenever we had guests over I would pretend that there was something wrong with the car, from oil changes to filters, any excuse to hide away from them in my garage. The fact that I had a brand new car or that I had no idea how to ‘fix’ cars was an inside joke to me”.</p>

<p class="font_7">He told me that when he found God he realized what a beautiful name he had. After a few years of believing and spreading the Lords name, he said, his wife randomly said to him “Vrede jy hakkel nie meer nie”. He was completely cured from stuttering. He told me that he loves his wife tremendously. They have a beautiful relationship.</p>

<p class="font_7">He briefly told me about his time working for Eskom.&nbsp;</p>

<p class="font_7">He told me that he doesn't use any medicine, he said that praising God. His wife Betty and himself are very healthy and he goes on to brag about how they love their fun walks at the zoo and such. He did tell me that he has one thing that troubles him and that is heartburn. He laughed and told me that he is not allowed to eat chocolates at night anymore. Laughing even louder he told me how Betty,his wife said to him that he is only allowed to buy chocolate from Woolworths, laughed some more and explained that even if he buys the same chocolate from another shop it gives him heartburn straight away. They work everyday except Sunday. Sunday is their worship day. Their day starts off by fetching two elderly ladies on their way to church. Two sisters. The one lady fell and broke her hip bone, she is 91, her sister used to walked to church every Sunday but when she got home her feet would be full of blood from the walk. Vrede told me that he volunteered to ‘pick them up’ every Sunday and help lift their burden. He told me that Betty and himself love helping children and elderly people in need, “this is our hobby”.</p>

<p class="font_7">He believes that God healed him from his stuttering and in return he has devoted the remainder of his life to worshipping Him.</p>

<p class="font_7">“Laat daar vrede wees”</p>

<p class="font_7" style=""><span style="">Betty, pronounced [Bee-Tee]. Elizabeth Aletta.</span></p>

<p class="font_7" style=""><span style=""><span class="wixGuard">​</span></span></p>

<p class="font_7" style=""><span style="">I knew straight away that this lady was not going to be like any other car guard that I have ever spoken to. &nbsp;</span></p>

<p class="font_7" style=""><span style=""><span class="wixGuard">​</span></span></p>

<p class="font_7" style=""><span style="">She told me that she has an on going struggle with keeping protected from the sun and uses strong sunblock everyday. She said to me that, her main concern about being a car guard was the sun, she otherwise enjoys it, she works everyday. She says that she owes a lot to being a runner, she said it has made her fit and strong, standing all day isn’t easy. She is extremely religious, and feels like this way she can get the word out all day long.</span></p>

<p class="font_7" style=""><span style="">She smelt so nice, like a real ‘tannie’ and it instantly reminded me of the perfume my grandma religiously wore. I had to ask what perfume she used..”Royal Secret from Estée Lauder” she said. Betty also told me that she gets terrible hay fever and sinus from any other perfume. She told me that even though it is expensive she has decided to keep using Estée Lauder as her chosen skin product. She keeps a Truworths account to make sure she can purchase it when she needs it.</span></p>

<p class="font_7" style=""><span style="">Betty and her husband are from Pretoria. They lived in Ermelo from 1973 and had moved back to Pretoria in 1991 after her husband retired at a power station. He retired as a senior.</span></p>

<p class="font_7" style=""><span style="">Has been working in Pretoria as a car guard for over 2 years now. She has been living in the area for 11 years. She is 77 years old. She tells me that she used to work at First National Bank and proudly said to me that she had 3 branches under her during her career in finance. She said that her age counted against her but that she enjoyed her work and staying busy.&nbsp;</span></p>

<p class="font_7" style=""><span style="">Her husband had been working as a car guard, and when she ‘retired’ she had decided to join him because they didn't want to sit at home.</span></p>

<p class="font_7" style="">&nbsp;</p>

<p class="font_7" style=""><span style="">Betty and her husband Vrede had 4 daughters, unfortunately they had lost their eldest daughter in a car accident, her fiancé also died in the collision. The other 3 children are married, she brags by saying that they are grand parents as well as great grand parents. She has 7 grand children,of which two of her grand children are married and then she has 5 great grand children.&nbsp;</span></p>

<p class="font_7" style=""><span style="">She mentioned that the fatal accident was caused by a drunken driver, and that he wasn't harmed.</span></p>

<p class="font_7" style=""><span style="">The Death of her daughter in 1983 feels like yesterday to her. She tells me that her late daughter’s name was Angela, and that its so fitting as she believes that she is an angel now. She said that she now lives in their hearts but she said that she doesn't like to talk about her everyday, it saddens her. She tells me that the day of the funeral she could feel Gods hand of protection and it made them stop crying, and comforted them, but it still hurts and it feels like it happened yesterday.</span></p>

<p class="font_7" style=""><span style="">She explained to me that both her husband and herself are alive in their community they reach out to other people who hurt because they understand as they have had unthinkable pain in their life and relate.</span></p>

<p class="font_7" style=""><span style=""><span class="wixGuard">​</span></span></p>

<p class="font_7" style=""><span style="">They like to take short trips and relaxing holidays away, when they have down time. They just got back from Bad Plaas. She pointed to her car and told me that it was a ‘gods present’ (GP registration)&nbsp; a gift from their daughter.</span></p>

<p class="font_8" style=""><span style="">It’s been awhile since my last post. I have been so busy and the longer I have left it the scarier it has been for me to get going on this project again. You see to me its not easy walking up to people and asking them if I can intrude in their personal space. There is always a fear of rejection when it comes to this project. Out of all the posts I do and you read, there are another 50% I do and then either the guards decide that they don't want to share their story or they afraid to speak to me as they might get into trouble from their ‘superiors’. I have lost the confidence to just walk up to them lately, and to be honest I am gathering the courage to start again. I am sure many of you must understand what it is I am trying to explain. Anyway I was doing a family shoot the other day.… after the shoot I left the venue and walked to my car with all my gear. I was super relieved that Freedom randomly started chatting to me as I had no intention on speaking to a car guard that day.&nbsp;</span></p>

<p class="font_8" style=""><span style="">Freedom is in his early twenties and from Zimbabwe. He lives in South Africa and has dual citizenship. He stared at my camera and asked me a bunch of questions about how it works its specks and if I could do video recordings with it. Turns out he is an artist himself, he has built a little recording studio where he lives in Olifantsfontein. Then he tells me that he needs to start saving to buy a video camera and has been doing research on which one to buy. He goes on to say that he needs to start recording his work and needs to start up a Youtube channel.&nbsp;</span></p>

<p class="font_8" style=""><span style="">Naturally I tell him about my project and ask if I could speak to him for awhile and take his photograph.&nbsp;</span></p>

<p class="font_8" style=""><span style="">He has awesome hair, and was very proud when I complimented it he said that&nbsp; has been growing it for awhile.&nbsp; Freedom whipped out his phone and started playing me some of his tracks that he has recorded. He produces Dancehall music. I was blown away by the quality of his music, I would buy it&nbsp; for sure, secretly I am a huge fan of Sean Paul…</span></p>

<p class="font_8" style=""><span style="">*Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.</span></p>