In 2014, I published Joey Luyt’s Memoirs. Sometime after that, a granddaughter sent me the piece you can read below. She refers to Mrs Joey Luyt throughout as ‘Granny’. It gives us a perspective from the 1950s to the 20th century of one of Hermanus’s leading families. I have lightly edited the text to remove references that may be too private. Jo vd Merwe and the Luyt Family I was born in 1947, and have no memory of my grandmother until I reached the age of four or five. My parents lived at Kwaaiwater and Granny (Mrs Joey Luyt) lived at the family home Schoongezicht, with her old housekeeper, Clara Taylor (Tay), who had worked for her for many years at the Marine Hotel. Granny had four daughters (a son, Henry, had died in 1938), who were all married by this time. Geraldine (my mother) and Joy both had children. Joy lived in Zeerust, and she liked to visit once a year. A third sister, Connie, lived on a farm near Potchefstroom, and she wanted to see her mother every year. However, after the Marine was sold (in 1947), Granny couldn’t leave Tay on her own, as she was in her 80’s. So it was decided that my parents and family would move to Schoongezicht and we would all (Joey, Tay, Geraldine, Geraldine’s husband, and child Jo) live together in the old family house. I remember moving there, as I did not want to go. I don’t recall Granny very much then at all. She was always there. She didn’t really like small children, nannies and governesses brought up her own. But she was pleased to see the great-grandchildren who were dutifully brought for her to see and held them for a few minutes while grumbling that they had unusual names and should have been named after her or their father’s family. Granny was also often away from Hermanus, visiting her daughters. Our holiday was always in July and August when we went to the Kruger Park and called on my mother’s sisters en route. Granny’s daughters and their families used to come down to Hermanus, often in December, and stay with us. When I became a teenager, I got to know my grandmother better as I became more interesting to her. Granny and my mother ran the florist shop in the Fisherman’s Cottage on the Schoongezicht property. She spent those years involved with her family, attending births of the grandchildren and going to help if any of them were sick or had troubles. Granny was attached to her embroidery, tapestries, and crocheting. She always had plenty of visitors coming and going, especially in the summer months. She attended the United Church in Hermanus, but I don’t think she was very active in Church affairs. She supported Boy’s Town and was involved with the Rudolf Steiner School (now Camphill) as she was very friendly with May Redman (founder of the School). In 1959, Granny went to London for a year to act as hostess to the Ambassador Dr Johannes Albertus van Rijn, known to me as Uncle Bertus. His wife was so verkramp that she would not sit next to a black man, let alone shake his hand. She also hated the English and refused to speak their language most of the time. Joey led an ordinary family life for most of those years. We lost Tay when she was in her 90’s. She had cancer and was nursed at Schoongezicht until the end. She had two wonderful nursing sisters. One was Jane Wilson, a Hermanus girl, and Joan, whose surname escapes me. They are probably the reason I chose nursing as a career.