Árdís - 01.01.1963, Side 16

14
ÁRDIS
came interested in the work being done at Westfort Institution
when we were told of a fourteen year old white schoolgirl who
had been admitted there. We tried in a small way to send her
boxes of candy and goodies and books and were delighted when
eventually we heard she had been discharged. Then Matron
Kellerman told us of the coloured women who were there, many
so disfigured that they would probably never leave the Institution,
so we transferred our eíforts to these women. There was an old
sewing machine that someone thought of that they could use —
then bright cottons for dresses at Christmas and I, for one, was
touched by the way that they helped each other sew the dresses
— as some of the women have lost their fingers and are unable
to manage anything like that.
The surroundings of the Institution are most attractive —
buildings scattered among big trees, in the quiet of the country,
several miles outside of Pretoria. There is a farm connected with
the Institution, so they are able to supply their own milk and
fresh produce and give employment to many patients.
Several years ago while acting as a Chauffeur to the social
worker for the Civilian Blind in Pretoria one afternoon, we called
at a small house in one of the far suburbs. The woman had
recently become blind and was having great difhculty in adjust-
ing herself to it. While she was talking to the social worker, I
was speaking to her husband, a tall elderly man, who told me he
had had leprosy and had spent twenty years at the Institution.
He said that it had been very hard to endure, that his children
had grown up without their father at home all these years and his
wife had struggled to bring them up. Then he surprised me by
stating calmly “God is good”. I looked at him with amazement,
thinking of all the pictures he had conjured up with his previous re-
marks and wondered what he meant. Then he told me with utmost
sincerity, “Yes, God is good, He let me come home now, when my
wife needs me more than she has ever needed me before”. I felt
very humble before such magnificent faith.
I am deeply indebted to Dr. A. R. Davison, the Medical Super-
intendent of Westfort Leper Institution of Pretoria for all his
assistance and for the information so readily supplied to enable
me to give you a few facts about this subject.