Graves by the river

I spent some quiet moments in the shady cemetery of Dusternbrook Farm, with the graves of Edgar and Marga Vaatz for company.

The graves are solid and well-built, with simple headstones made from stone found on the farm. They both died in 1993 and lie here side by side, after a life of 51 years on the farm.

Marga had chosen the spot where she wanted to be buried, down by a shady bend in the river. Across the river, lovely hills curve round in an eternal embrace. The sun sets behind these Namibian hills and I watched an African sunset suffuse the sky with intense colours. Marga and Edgar must have sat here in the cool of the day many times and enjoyed similar sunsets.

She came here as a young bride of 19, with all the energies and enthusiasms of youth. All her most precious memories of young womanhood must have been bound up in this place, her home of over half a century.

So what does it all mean? The love of place. Duty. Hard work in a difficult land, far from the green meadows of Europe.