My Mother passed on, on Friday the 20th of October at 23:00, at the age of 94. It was after an illness of a couple of months, during which she suffered severely.
Magrietha (Maxie) Petronella Niehaus (né Arlow) was born on the 14th of April 1929, on the farm Schuinsdrift in the Groot Marico district in the North West Province (old Western Transvaal). She was one of ten children, and is survived only by her youngest brother, Koos Arlow.
Maxie was married to Carl (Kallie) Gerhard Niehaus. They had two children, myself and Susanna Louisa Johanna (Sandra) Erasmus (né Niehaus), both of us are still alive. She had five grand children, Helen Magrietha Anna Niehaus, Elard Erasmus, Gerhard Erasmus, Khanya Niehaus and Nkanyezi Niehaus, and one great-granchild, whom my daughter Helen named, Forest.
Maxie Niehaus was a dedicated mother and wife, with a very strong personality. She was truly the matriarch of the Niehaus family, and especially after her husband passed on seven years ago she fulfilled that role with strength and dedication. She was the core that kept the family together.
Maxie had a huge love for the arts and her Afrikaans culture. She read widely, and was a lover of Afrikaans poetry. She wrote poems herself, and painted and made exquisite wood cuttings, and works of embroidery. Maxie saw herself very much as an Afrikaner woman, and during her 62 year long marriage with her husband Carl (Kallie) she took the lead from him in his conservative (pro-apartheid nationalist) - and to he honest racist - poltical views.
However, after her husband Kallie passed on, on the 2nd of August 2016, she significantly changed her views about apartheid, and started to acknowledge that apartheid was wrong. She made every effort to repare the strained relationship with me, her oldest son, who was a libetation fighter in the struggle against apartheid.