Former mayoress dies
Sandra Grolman (76), wife of former Benoni mayor Sam Grolman, died on Sunday night, after a short illness.
“We had been married for 55 years and it’s strange to awaken one day and find that you no longer have a wife,” said Grolman.
The two met at an engagement party to which they were both invited by mutual friends, after they both returned from living in England for some time.
“It was quite funny that we had mutual friends but had never met until that party; I had just returned from studying and working in England in 1958, and she had just come from there a few months before, and a friend invited me to the engagement party,” Grolman recalled.
Although he was tired after his trip abroad, he attended the party and it seems to have been one of the best decisions he made.
“I met Sandra at the party and started talking to her then. I asked her out on a date shortly after and we never went out with other people since,” he said.
Grolman recalled that, 18 months prior to her death, his wife was able to visit her late father’s gravesite, more than 60 years after his death.
“She came from England to South Africa with her mother in 1948, shortly after the war,” he said.
”Her father was killed with six other crew members when the plane he was flying was shot down in Belgium, on its way back from Germany.”
Sandra had no idea where her father had been buried until their son-in-law made a few enquiries and managed to track down the gravesite in Belgium.
“For the first time in her life she was able to see where her father had been buried when we made the trip to the grave last year,” Grolman said.
The Grolmans enjoyed a wonderful life in Benoni, where they raised their two sons, David (53) and Paul (46) Grolman, and daughter, Lesley Fingleson (50).
The couple also enjoyed two terms in office when Grolman was elected as mayor and Sandra served as mayoress, in 1984 and 1989.
“We also did a lot of charity work with the Rotary Club of Benoni, where I was president and Sandra was president of the Rotary Anns; she was also chairman of the Ladies Circle when I was with Round Table No 23,” he added.
The family held an intimate ceremony in the Jewish section of the Benoni Cemetery, on Friday.
Sandra leaves behind her husband, three children and six grandchildren.
