Most of us have someone to whom we owe a debt of gratitude. I have told my story before, but as I am so grateful I am going to repeat it.
I owe my life to a very brave lady, Myra Gallienne, who with be 100 in August. When I was two years old, in 1952, I started walking up the long drive of our property to look at the horse and cart parked beside one of our fields my father had rented to a local farmer and his wife. A low flying aircraft startled the horse and it bolted towards me. 'Auntie' Myra was packing tomatoes in the packing shed, (my father was a horticulturalist who grew tomatoes and flowers, Auntie Myra was one of his staff). Very bravely she ran towards me and the bolting horse, picked me up and ran back towards the house, we fell through the door just as my mother opened it, the horse and cart passed us with only about 6 inches to spare. It was stopped by a high wall at the end of our property. The horse was shot by my father, it couldn't be calmed down and was a danger. The elderly farmer and his wife had fallen through the shafts of the cart on which they were sitting on it at the time of the incident. They weren't run over by the wheels but the farmer never got over the shock, and died of a heart attack not long after.
Without the bravery of that little lady who is only 4' 8" tall, I would not be alive to tell the tale.
THANK YOU AUNTIE MYRA
I phone Auntie Myra on a regular basis, and tell her that she is famous as I keep posting her story on the Internet, it has also been published over the years in newspapers and magazines too. This pleases her so much.
I also tell her how very cross I will be with her if she dies before her 100th birthday, which makes her giggle. Some of her immediate family, of whom she is the last member, have nearly made their century but not quite. I have asked her what she would like to do on her special day and offered to set up a sky diving session followed by swimming with sharks. I believe that was done by a South African woman centenarian a few years ago. Auntie Myra is considering my offer.
