old woman at my building

Wednesday night is fast replacing Thursday, Sunday and Monday as the day when some of the most random things happen to me in Cape Town.


This week was not different. While on my way back home from getting something to eat, I jumped out of the lift to be greeted by this old lady with no teeth. This old woman, let us call her Merriam (“emphasis on the a”) because that is her name.

She had a pan in her hand which she covered with a pillow case. The explanations was that she was looking for an African lady who had just moved in and the stuff was a gift. At this stage I am literally two doors from my place and I really want to dart for my door because it is rather dark and I do not trust an old woman with a pan in her hand after dark. Call me ageist if you like but anyway.

So this lady, Merriam, ignore the disinterested look on my face and launches into a history lesson about her. You see you can see Table Mountain from where we are sitting and this lady shows me a street near the top of the hill and says that is where she grew up to Jewish parents. At this point my knees are freezing because I am wearing a dress that barely covers anything really and yet, out of politeness or stupidity I am still listening to this old lady.

She jumps from one subject (her son in London) to another (our landlord, religion, food, war) with the kind of ease that only a demented person can muster.

And you know what, as I lose feeling in my toes and knees, I am starting to like this toothless old lady. Because I know that if I ever live past 50 without jumping off a building I might be her. Well not exactly but you know what I mean.

Eventually she lets me go and promises to bring me some soup and bake me some rock hard scones and off she goes disappearing towards the lift looking for her African woman at 9pm in the evening. Only in Cape Town?