George was the youngest son of Oswald and Johanna Pope. His father was of English and Scottish descent and his mother of south African stock of the Louw and Barnard variety.
He was born in 1933 in the town of Kroonstad. He has two brothers named Ronald and Leslie. His mother was deaf and dumb due to having measles when she was 5. His father drove locomotives all over south Africa and South west Africa. His parent met in South west Africa where he drove the train and she ran a bead and breakfast which her mother.
The family went through some hard times when he was growing up and as a result had some strange hangup about certain foods. I think they were a reminder of a bad time in his life.
George looking very please with himself on a horse.
George did his national service. I think he really enjoyed his army experience. He standing with his Brother-in-law Max.
Having a picnic with his future wife, Rosemary Crone and his brother Leslie and his sister-in-law Suzy. He really did like goophing for the camera.
Him and Leslie sing a bawdy ballad. Rosemary was not looking happy. George used to enjoy memorizing poetry and when an opportunity presented itself he would launch forth and resite the poem. He had a mouth organ and this too was taken out to join in with sing-a-longs.
George and Rosemary eventually got married. There was a large gathering of people and all seemed to have a great time. George was 23 and Rosemary was 20. They were very young when they got married.
They went on honeymoon to Inanda in Rustenburg.
From left to right
Oswald Pope, Johanna Louw Pope, George Pope, Rosemary Crone Pope, Felicity Flascis, Max Crone, Bertha Crone Woolf, Jack Woolf
From left to right
Leslie Pope, Rosemary Crone Pope, George Pope and Ronald Pope
George and Rosemary soon had a daughter named Jeneatta. Jeneatta was the star in George's constellation. She made him extremely proud in all that she said and did. At the end of his life he move down to East London as that is where she was living. George would wax lyrical as to what a lovely person she was. It is nice to see that at the end they had worked out any issues that Jeneatta had with him.
George and Jeneatta.
Christmas day when Jeneatta was about 2. It is a lovely picture of real life action.
George's second daughter was Kathy.
A walk at Florida lake with Rosemary and Jeneatta.
Rosemary, Kathy and Jeneatta
The Pope family is 1966.
Leslie and Suzy and their kids with George and Rosemary. Everyone is looking way bedonerred. I wonder what had gone wrong in this visit. Suzy loved to brag about her kids. They all did well so maybe she had earned the right. She was a lot of a religious nut and had all of these strange habits. She outlived George, which probably really pissed him off.
George when to technical high school, did his apprenticeship as a fitter and turner, he studied further and eventually became a draughts man. He was never very happy at his job and worked as a contractor for various firms. I can remember the stress of when he was once again laid off from his current job.
From left to right.
Ma Rita, Jeneatta, George, Rosemary, Kathy and Oswald. House at Rose street before it grew.
George and Rosemary only went on holiday once whilst we were growing up. It was a bit of a disaster.
Sug and Margaret Shepstone were good friends with George and Rosemary. Sug was a farm manager for various farms' and we used to drive down and spend weekends at these strange places. From being friends with them I know, the sheep are not soft, calabashes are cool and that cows are seriously stinky.
Picture of George.
His daughter's grew older.
Sailing was to take up about 25 years of George's life.
George had various doeky hats with lace around. We became dab hands of making new hats for each regatta.
George's spearhead.This was a project that everyone was involved in. He sailed it for a few years and then gave it to his daughters. It was a soft give as he took it down to the coast, crashed it into a rescue boat and then used the money to buy a ring for the second wife.
Yatch club people and Wendy Couth. She was a fixture in Georges life for many years. We liked her as she was rich as anything and always bought us expensive presents. She also always gave us 5 kg of quality Street chocolates every Christmas.
Children are mercenary like that. I think she could have been our first step mother. Instead our first step mother lasted 6 weeks.
This is Roselie Schroeder and she was married to George for 6 weeks. She kept his surname and the diamond ring that the boat paid for. In the 6 weeks she tried to get George to get rid of his children (move them into a flat), gave away all of the furniture in the house and then left, taking the un-openend wedding presents with her.
My father had dreadful taste in women. This is shown by the women he married and those who he dated whilst being married.
This is the second wedding that he had. I included it as it has many people who were fun.
Jeneatta got married to Christopher and all hostilities were called to a halt to do the wedding. At this point George had his third wife. Her name was Yvonne Don and George stayed married to her for 20 odd years. He was never completely faithful to her, but, he did stay with her until she died.
Rosemary and Roselie both died on the same day. It is fun to think of George up there having to deal with all of his wives at once.
This is Yvonne Donn. George was her third husband as well. She had 6 or so children, a mother and a nephew and a niece that all moved into George's house. At this point the house had to grow to make space for all of the people.
This is the new part of the house. When most of the children had moved out of the house then Rosemary and Jimmy stayed in one half and George and Yvonne stayed in the newly built half. My father almost drank himself to death in this house. Once he dried out, he was sober until he married his fourth wife who thought it would be fine for him to just have a little.
Once Rosemary and Jimmy moved into their own place, George moved into a house in Discovery. A few years later he gave the house to Yvonne's daughter Lesley. Lesley was so very clever. George and Yvonne bough a flat by the lake. Once Yvonne had died, George found a fourth wife and they bought a place in Princess. George and his last wife went on holiday to East London and decided it would be a jolly good idea to move there.
George at Kathy's wedding. He must have been 64 and still full of life.
George shortly before he died at 84. He was still cognitive until the end. His body just let him down. He was always interested in doing exercise and this may have been why he lived to such a good age.
He died on the 1st of December 2016.
Jeneatta and Tony with his coffin before his cremation. Jeneatta read a poem to him. He would have liked that.
This is what I said at the cremation:
Dear Old Dad, George Alexander Pope. Here ware are to bid farewell to your mortal remains. Your spirit now free, far away from the cruelty and sorrows of your childhood that haunted you in the last years. Free from a broken body. Now you can embrace and acknowledge your inner beauty and your many talents. An artist, a poet, sailor a designer of houses, crushers, milling machines and so much more. The man filled with passion and dreams. You doubted about a heaven after life, even God. I do know God never doubted you. Now at peace surrounded by love and light.
This poem is one that you would’ve quoted to us who love you and celebrate your 84 years on earth.
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of your future that you plann’d:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For in the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you remember and be sad.
Farewell Darling old Dad. Amen
George on his way to heaven.
He had a long life and lived a lot of different lives.
I hope that he had resolved some of his issues before he left.
He will be missed by his daughters and Grand children.
Rest in Peace George Alexander Pope.
28-09-1933 to 01-12-2016
