Mum and I visit South Africa in 2007 and 2012 to learn about the life and times of my great grandfather, Vincent Lawrence (1872-1965). Lawrence worked with Gandhi when the Mahatma was in South Africa, got involved in the struggle against apartheid, and helped found St. Anthony's Church in Durban.
The other day, Ian (my mum's cousin's son), brought over a box of memorabilia from Auntie May, Ian's grandmother. I am about to go through the box with mum, and take pictures of all the documents. It is sobering to see a person's life reduced to a box full of memorabilia... it reminds me of the impermanence of form.
My Auntie Joan sent us a copy of a "Gandhi in South Africa" comic, put together by the folks at Tolstoy's Farm. Tolstoy's Farm was an intentional community that Gandhi founded near Johannesberg. It sounds like the community is now just fields, but there are plans for a tourist and teaching center. The comic is part of an effort to teach regular South Africans about the role Gandhi played in the struggle, and about the birth of Non-Violence (Satyagraha) here in South Africa. Of course, I am partial to comics as a form of expression, ever since the founding of the Center for Cartoon Studies in WRJ VT, so I was interested to see this!
Harold was also good enough to drop off Auntie Baby's scrapbook. I went through it last night and took pictures of all the pages. Auntie Baby's real name was Francesca Lawrence and she was married to Michael Joseph. She was a trained singer, and performed in many different musicals. I came across some great pictures of my 2nd cousin once-removed Rosemary, whom I visited in the UK back in 1989. There is also an interesting picture of my grand uncle, George Lawrence, in a group called the "Jazz Bandits" - I am sure that my brother-in-law Vijay Iyer will be amused to hear this! Finally, I found a goofy picture of me and my family from my graduation from the KW Bilingual School! I've included it here for you amusement.
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