My Lasting Minutes

In Welkom's halls where childhood shadows crept,  
A young boy's restless mind, never quite adept.  
Labelled a menace, bound in ropes and fears,  
Forced to change his script amid the silent tears.

In left-handed scrawls, still clumsy and unkind,  
Yet in teachers like Van der Linde, grace he'd find.  
From Sub A to B, with love subtly stitched,  
Even as the hands of harsher judgments twitched.

To Hennenman's boarders, flung far from his home,  
Where early on, he chose the wilds to roam.  
No girlfriend's hand to hold, but fate would smile,  
Maggie came, and love bloomed immediately, not after a while.

Expelled, accused, a scapegoat for their lies,  
The bitter taste of injustice never dies.  
Yet Banana’s taunts, in derision steeped,  
Spurred a promise made, a vow he’d deeply keep.

Through army mud, and mines’ deep darkened calls,  
Where hard helmets clash within the earthen walls.  
Learning, fighting, shouting down the line,  
Hairbottle’s sneers met by a will as tough as mine.

Love, a light in Maggie’s eyes, so bright,  
Lifting him through each hardship, each plight.  
From the mining school to battles fiercely won,  
Each trial faced under the relentless sun.

Now, amid Australia's vast and open lands,  
Still he stands with Maggie, hand in clasped hands.  
Learning still, from life’s stern, rugged class,  
Bound by shared words, a love that will not pass.

Years of toil in soil, and days in scholarly halls,  
Together they’ve climbed over life’s steep walls.  
A treasure found, not in earth, but in shared fate,  
Two souls conjoined, by love, and not by hate.

So here they stand, in life's relentless quest,  
Praising God above, who’s always known best.  
With wisdom gained from a journey so profound,  
In their union, life’s richest joys are found.

Here follows my story that lead to this poem:

As a young child I was ADHD without diagnosis for years. I also didn't fit in anywhere. In Sub A and B, I was labeled a menace, and one teacher even tied me to the chair with a rope. They also tried to make me write with my right hand, even though I was left-handed, and after many beatings, they quickly forced me to use my left hand— with which I still write dysfunctionally and awkwardly like a crab today. I don't hold it against them because they didn't know any better. The two of them were actually very gentle and loving under the circumstances, Miss Van der Linde in Sub B and Miss Boshoff in Sub A at St Helena Primary School in Welkom. I was also thrown into a boarding school in Hennenman, 36 kilometers away, in standard 1 because my mother had strokes over my misconduct. That didn't last long after I then decided to run away. I never really had a girlfriend either and was so thankful when the Lord later gave me my Magrietha (Maggie). I was at a boys' school in high school which was a good thing because I never really learned or knew how to get along with girls. I had to learn that myself after school. I was expelled from school in standard 6 and made the scapegoat for something I wasn't guilty of. I had my dad's 45 Colt in my mouth ready on the side of their double bed at 13 Van der Vyver Street in Odendaalsrus, when the Lord spoke to me. My one teacher years later, we called him Banana, bet in front of the class two or three years later that I would never amount to anything in life. He always laughed and said that I, Steyn as they called me, just had 'crap' on the brain. Lol. Schoolmates also teased me a lot, but I sent them packing and just laughed. Today I realize he, old Banana, actually spurred me on in his own way to do better because he must have seen something in me. He had bet in front of the class that we should come together ten years after matric at the Holiday Inn in Welkom on the 1st of May 1999 between 6 and 7 in the evening (because he said the communists would always ensure that 1 May remains a holiday). I pushed through and finished school with below average marks. I also went through the army where I learned horse riding, and worked in the townships, it was rough and gruesomely nasty and ugly. I drank like a fish after the army and survived three car accidents before I met my Magrietha in 92 through my grandmother. Having her in my life completely changed it. She was an orphan who knew nothing about the world and who was also used to nothing and I dreamed of showing her the world. I achieved mining points and distinctions in N2 and N3 at mining college in 91 and 92 to qualify for a Technikon scholarship. Then fought my butt off later in 1993/4 against the Divisional Training Manager in the North Free State, John Hairbottle, to get a scholarship through Anglo, while all the young black kids were being favored with affirmative action. That guy, old Hairbottle, almost got me fired that time after he and I shouted at each other down the hallway of his training center. He was responsible for the training of between 20 and 30,000 people in the North Free State, while I was just a new shift boss. He later also became one of my lecturers at the technikon. Had fun times with him there, the old snob. He thought he knew mining, but this old pillar mining shift boss (that was me after three years as a shift boss) wouldn't let him tell me, by s bloke who hadn't been underground for years, how to mine, and he was also just an old white-collar manager who never really got his pretty hands dirty. The other students enjoyed our quarrels because they were all young rookies while I was the only seasoned shiftie there. Lol. I gave old Beerbottle, I mean Hairbottle, a lot of lip there. Lol. As you can deduce, I finally got a scholarship to go study later in 1995 after I threatened to take Hairbottle to industrial court because they were unfairly applying their policies to favor affirmative action candidates. Fortunately, merit still meant something in the law books at that time. I also went to the Holiday Inn in 1999 to have a drink with other schoolmates to honor old Banana who had passed away four years earlier from stomach cancer. I was the only one there that evening and I toasted him alone. I poured his glass in his absence (I knew by then he had succumbed). At that stage I had just finished my national higher diploma in mining, and was also already married with one son and another on the way, as well as a seasoned pillar mining shift boss in some of the most challenging ground in the North Free State, with N2 and N3 Mining certificates, a mine captain's ticket, a blasting ticket, and a banksman's ticket.

Yes, and so our life also took a turn that led us to Australia about 15+ years ago. Nevertheless, with my impulsivity due to my strong ADHD, I achieved little success in life from my work and am still on a shift boss salary today, but I am also much wiser after completing my master's degree here in Australia at my own expense. Fortunately, my wife knew poverty and struggles as a normality, and we are forever in love with each other because of our experiences, setbacks, successes, and adventures together. We have seen and experienced the world together today, the beauty and the ugliness of it, through almost two years of unemployment as well, but we remain deeply in love with each other in what we have experienced together. Such an adventurous treasure trove of experiences together is of invaluable worth. Where else does one find another person with whom one has so much in common? We are literally and figuratively joined at the hip today and even regularly speak exactly the same words and sentences to each other at exactly the same times. Such an experience with another soul is irreplaceable. There is no greater treasure on this earth. Honor and praise to the Lord our God who has created us so wonderfully. His knowledge, wisdom, and gifts knows no end. Sela.

Photo from the Welkom showgrounds in 1992 and before we got married. We enjoyed a lovely time together that evening so many years ago.