Drum – 08 August 2019

CORRIE HANSEN, SUPPLIED

first home. He was extremely proud of

that house. Back then, there weren’t

many houses and the area was over-

grownwithpine,gumandwattletrees.”

Wernerand hi

Adlino, would run

barefoot through

the bushes with

coins in their pock-

ets to buy bread for

their mother, dash-

ing from tree to tree

to cool their feeti

the scorching sum

mer months.

“We also usedt

make a meal in th

veld near our hous

he recalls. “We’dc

open a can of bak

beans and take anu

sliced bread fromhome,thenwe’dmake

a fire under the trees to heat the beans.

“The Eerste River years were my best

years. Those were good times.”

Werner’s love of nature deepened as

he grew older and some of his fondest

memories are going camping with fam-

ily in his dad’s bottle-green Toyota Coro-

na 1900, playing games on the beach and

spending time in the great outdoors.

“All of that fed my love for nature and

plants. I’d known since I was five years

old that I wanted to make it my life.”

He matriculated in 1993 at Kleinvlei

Senior Secondary School – as the

school’s top student – and enrolled at

the Cape Peninsula University of Tech-

nology, graduating in 1997 with a diplo-

ma in horticulture.

He then worked at a nursery in Belville

where he spotted a notice on the bulletin

board one day: Kirstenbosch was offering

a two-year internship. He called to request

an interview almost immediately.

“On my way I got lost and by the time

drenchedinsweat.My

interviewwasinthesamebuilding

wheremyofficeisnow.Myapplication

wassuccessfulandI knewfromthe

beginningI neverwantedtoleavethis

place.ThiswaswhereI belonged.”

Buttherewasnopermanentposition

availablesowhenhisinternshipended

hegota jobasa horticulturalistatthe

Karoo Desert National Botanical

Garden in Worcester, where he and

Carmen, a preprimary schoolteacher,

settled.

Their children, Emily (18), Ezra (14)

and Bethanie-Rose (8), now complete

the family. “We adopted Bethanie-Rose

in 2010 – two months after a family

tragedy. That year we lost someone

and gained someone else.”

T

HE extended Voigt family

and Carmen’s family were

travelling in convoy on an

expedition through Namibia

that Werner had organised.

They’d crossed the border

ithWerner’s dad driving

e bakkie at the back of the

nvoy with Werner’s mom,

s two younger brothers,

ldo and Kurt, and Adlino’s

ughter Nicole.

It was a gravel road and

re was a sudden right turn.

anted to tell my dad to be

eful around the bend but

ought he’d be fine as he’d

n driving for years. To this

I regret not having warned

.”

erner’s dad called him on

radio to tell him the bakkie

had overturned.

“I turned around and drove back to

the scene. My mom was lying in the

middle of the road. She’d died on impact.

She was only 57.”

There were proteas on her coffin at the

funeral along with daisies – the kind

Werner had picked for her as a child.

“I think about her every day,” he says.

“I recently read a newspaper article

about my curatorship and I criedso

much.Mymomwould’vebeensoproud

ofme.Shewasoneofthegreatestin-

spirationsbehindmyloveofnature

andgardening.

“InEersteRivershehada largegarden

withanabundanceofplants–lilies,

gladioli, blue irises. Our lives changed

dramatically after she died. Our family

get-togethers have ended and her

garden deteriorated. Nothing was ever

the same again.”

In 2016 tragedystruckagain:Adlino

tookhisownlife.“Hewasinthenavy

andsufferedfromdepression.It’satragic

story.”

After eight years in Worcester, Werner

got the job that would allow a measure

of happiness back into his heart.

Being curator of an iconic place such

as Kirstenbosch is humbling, he says –

the kind of place that makes people

proud of their country.

His advice to people who visit is to let

go of their cellphones for a while and

reconnect with nature in all its abun-

dance and wonder.

Werner’s mom is never far from his

side in this place of beauty. “I think of

how she would’ve told everyone in her

street in Eerste River that her son is now

working at Kirstenbosch.

“Iwould’velovedwalkingwithher

inthisgarden,showingherallthe

plants.”

ABOVE:Wernerwith(fromleft)

wifeCarmenandtheirkids,Emily,

Ezra and Bethanie-Rose. LEFT:

Werner’s daughter, Emily, and

son, Ezra, enjoying time at the

beach with his mom, Elizabeth,

two years before her death.

Plantshave

always played

a big role in

Werner’slife.

Hesayshe

inherited

hisloveof

nature from

his mother,

whokept

a beautiful

garden at

theirhome

inEerste

River.

http://www.drum.co.za 8 AUGUST 2019 | (^71)
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