Character Development
By Jesse van der Merwe,
About My Family
I have a very large family. I am the youngest boy, out of seven children. My youngest son was able to scan some of my old film photographs. The one below is of a family gathering back in 1966 - I am on the right. The reason I have no pants on is that I had just jumped out of the pool - we were playing silly water games with all the children. My beautiful wife and three children are also in the photograph.
My family is very religious, with all four brothers (myself included) becoming ministers at some stage in our lives. I would like to eventually put a few of my sermons on my blog, so that I can share them with my family without having to email them each individually.
My father was Afrikaans, and my mother was English. One of my favourite photographs that I have ever taken is of the two of them in front of their home in Pretoria. Even though my mother was very old and sickly in this photograph, it still brings memories of her kindness and joy.
As I have already mentioned, I have three children. They are all grown-up now, with the youngest already in his 50s. I sometimes miss their youth and all the fun we had when they were small. I have so many good memories of playing cricket outside in the garden; whether it was with just the five of us, or with the whole family at one of our infamous family gatherings. The photograph below is also outside my parent's house in Pretoria.
