Chris van der Westhuizen

Ses in die gesin,
gevoed uit God se hand.
Saam het ons leer lewe,
mekaar verdra… verstaan.

Deur baie moes ons gaan,
om saam as gesin te staan.
Om liefde te kweek
wat niemand ooit kan breek.

My moeder - so lief en teer - 
met moederliefde, meer en meer.
My pappa, nou pas ontdek,
het in my hart die beste plek.

Twee susters het ek wel,
op mekaar kon ons nog altyd skel.
Maar gelukkig sal die band
van liefde nooit verbrand.

Vir my boetie was ek lief gewees,
maar nou wandel hy in die Gees.
Ons het ook maar baie baklei,
maar steeds was hy lief vir my.

Nou, ’n eeu later, voel dit vir my
voel ek alleen - geskuif op sy.
Hulle almal bly so ver van my,
en verlange… dié moet ek kry.

As ek dink aan daardie tye saam,
daai jare was regtig aangenaam.
Die herinneringe hier in my
sal altyd, warm, by my bly.

                              Chris M. v/d Westhuizen '1993 (Graad 12)

Family Love

Six of us in the family,
fed by God’s own hand.
Together we learned to live,
to understand... and to withstand.

We’ve been through so much
to stand as one, side by side.
We nurtured a love
no force could divide.

My mother, so gentle and dear,
held a love beyond all measure.
And my father, newly found in heart,
now holds in mine the highest treasure.

I have two sisters, it is true -
we often fought, as siblings do.
Yet the bond we built with care and grace
is one that time will not erase.

I loved my brother, deeply so,
though now he walks where spirits go.
We bickered much in younger days,
but still he loved me, in his ways.

Now a lifetime later, it seems,
I’m left alone with distant dreams.
They all live far, and I must bear
this longing hanging in the air.

But when I think of times we shared,
those years so sweet, so deeply fair -
the memories held within my soul
still warm me, keep me whole.

                              Chris M. v/d Westhuizen '1993 (Grade 12 - Translated from Afrikaans)