Minette's Family   (click here for pictures)

My immediate family consists of my dad, who will be 60 next year and my older brother and older sister. My dad is a very proud grandfather of 6 grandchildren. Three of them belong to my sister Yolanda. They are Lucille (15), Chante (12) and Jaco jnr. (6). My brother (Herman) has two children and they are Jean-Louie (8) and Sume (6). Then there is Thomas of course, who is 8.

My mother sadly passed away in 1988 and my little brother in 1993.

Herman is married to Daleen and he is a very keen cyclist. He once cycled to Cape Town from Pretoria a few years ago (about 1500 kilometres).

My sister Yolanda was married before, but now lives with Jaco. She enjoys staying home and looking after the children and is very good with making clothes and home decorating.

That makes up my immediate family, but of course there are uncles and aunts etc, without whom our family would not be completed. Here is a simple flowchart if you want to see where everyone fits into the greater scheme of things.

I also have to include friends, such as Zelna, with whom I've been friends since I was 14 years old. Zelna is married to Clifford and has two children, Donovan (9) and Wesley (6).

Then there's Christina, who also lives in England. I met her in 1994 and we became very good friends. When she came over to England in 1996, I followed about a month later. She is married to Walter (who now owns his own Veterinary practice) and they have three children, Jens (8), Christopher (3) and Pierre who was born in July 2003. Having Christina here in England meant that most of the friendship and moral support came from this quarter over the last 10 years, but not only because she lives closer than others.