Tereza Myburgh

Tereza Myburgh, néé Pretorius, was born in Wankie (Hwange), Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). In 1968, her family fled the civil war and settled in Pretoria, South Africa with a few meagre possessions. After graduating from Iona Convent School, she married Gert in 1974. In 1980, they ventured into the countryside, near Middleburg, and purchased the local general dealer store, Weltevrede Handel, on a smallholding. For 23 years, Tereza ran a highly successful business while raising her three children. Tereza always delighted her children and later her grandchildren with all her technicolour tales gleaned from this period. She narrated these stories with theatrics and humor whilst unintentionally also revealing the hardships and struggles of living in third world conditions. Stronger than her drive to earn a living for her children with Gert was her compassion for those in need, always charging headlong into the thick of charity and welcoming the marginalized into her home.

She fought to widen the horizons for her children, which eventually led them to seek their futures abroad. Left behind, Gert and Tereza traveled through South Africa in a camper, torn between their grandchildren and their motherland. Upon her recent return to Canada, she was surrounded by many of her loved ones as she passed away in peace. Shortly before her passing she had dreamt that the Lord Jesus had come to fetch her.

Tereza is survived by her husband Gert, her children Nicolene (& Alexander), Lee (& Marta) and Andries (& Jodi), and her 8 grandchildren: Erika, Bianca, Emma and Frits; Zak and Max; Damion and Elaina.