Granny-next-door and some nurses said Mme was killed by exhaustion and a sore heart because really she was never as ill as Papa was. She could still walk to the toilet by herself, although she looked weak, and she played handtouching games with Lesedi and told us stories right until the last day. Granny-next-door was sad that she never had a chance in those six weeks to visit Mme at the hospital.

Back to our daily routine, Tsidi doesn’t like it very much when I help her with schoolwork during the homework period at school. On those days when I do not manage to persuade her to do homework at school, it’s the first thing we do when we arrive at her home. When that is done we play with the children a bit, then I take Lesedi’s wheelbarrow and we go home.

The first thing I do when we arrive home is work in the garden. Granny-next-door has a vegetable garden that she makes me work in for pay. I make R2.50 a week. Plus she says I can pick whatever I like. Her gardener is always picking enough to feed his family. For supper I cook stiff pap. In good times I mix it with something or put it on the side. Lesedi’s favourite is potatoes mixed with pap. I prefer spinach. That day when Mbuso gave me margarine I added it, and as we say in our part of the world, “you couldn’t give it to the blind”.

Granny-next-door lives with her granddaughter who never did well at school and therefore works in town in white people’s kitchens, and comes home every evening. Granny-next-door told me that all her five children still send her money at the end of each month. They send her so much money that she sometimes forgets to go and collect her pension money. She does not have many uses for money. That is why she sometimes gives me brown coins just for making her a cup of her own tea. I am very anxious about winter coming. We are in the middle of April now. Winter has begun whispering to us. When winter shouts there will be nothing in Granny-next door’s garden for us to have with pap.

I will tell you about our weekend when I write again next week. But to finish off our day, Lesedi and I eat supper together. After supper I teach Lesedi a few things, like today I want her to start counting from twenty backwards. After the lesson I read a bit to her, and then put her in bed. Candles are a big problem with us, on days when I am not as frugal as Mistress Maluleke says I must be, I use so much of the candle! I like to read. I take books from our school library every week. The problem is, there’s just not enough time in the day to read. As you will have gathered by now, not one day goes by without me praying before I go to sleep. That’s how I end my day.

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Tell us: Do you think Granny-next-door could do more for Refiloe and her family?