Pietie visits his friend
Noela was on her cellphone to Pietie at last 20 times a day, singing to him.
One or two (or maybe more) phone calls, and it was decided … Pietie is to visit his friend in the in-patient unit (IPU) at Stepping Stone Hospice.
After all, they have been together since 2015, never a day apart, they are each other’s companions and they have a lot to catch up on.
So explains 95-year-old hospice patient Noela Roberts, who was admitted to the IPU in New Market Park on November 26.
“I’ve always had budgies, since the age of 20,” she said. “Some of them got as old as 10 years, Pietie is now five years old,” Noela said.
Since being admitted to the IPU, Noela was on her cellphone to Pietie at last 20 times a day, singing to him “so he doesn’t feel lost without me”.
Sister Sheryl Newman, head of the clinical services, overheard these “singing” conversations and immediately asked Noela’s friend to bring Pietie to visit.
“As long as Pietie stays in his cage, he can stay as long as he wants,” Sheryl explained.
Noela was born in 1934 and got married at the age of 35.
“I was married to a wonderful man who absolutely adored me. We were happy, though we never had children, I couldn’t have children.”
She stayed in the south of Johannesburg for most of her life and in 2010 sold her apartment in Rewlatch and moved into Mothwa Haven cottages in the same suburb.
“I made peace with the fact that I am to die soon, my affairs are in order and Pietie will go and stay with a dear friend of mine. I made that very clear in my will.”
But for now, the two will spend as much time as possible together and share many more songs and conversations before it is time to say goodbye.
