Highway resident (77) delves deep into family history with book
The book, with only 200 copies in circulation, covers a large portion of Dianne White's family history as well as her own personal story.
WHAT was destined to be a simple gift for her family, Dianne White’s book, Footprints in my Heart, was so rich with history and overflowing with emotion that it received its first print run of 200 copies.
The 77-year-old Upper Highway resident said it took her a large portion of 2020, most of it under the hard nationwide lockdown, to write and piece together.
While sitting outside on her cozy porch, a brisk chill in the air, White smiled and said, “Every word in the book is true. We don’t have any money to leave our children and I thought that at the beginning of lockdown I could write all of the things that life is and wrap up our family history. This would be our gift to them.”
With hands in her lap, she looks into her garden and recalls a piece of her own story. “I was an only child and was mainly alone. I was a strange child,” she said with a grin.
“I saw people who had died, who weren’t there and I didn’t know that most people couldn’t see them. I just thought that everyone saw what I saw. I witnessed the death of my dad, mom and son, Peter. Each one of these are covered in their respective chapters. I saw what I saw and you either believe it, or you don’t,” she smiled.
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The book is filled with humour, deep and beautiful history that covers so many firsts. While it took up to eight months to put together, only five copies of the book were initially going to be printed, bound and handed to family members as cherished memoirs. H
er son, David, gave it a read through and had a different plan.
“It feels kind of awful to bear your soul. Writing about my family’s history was traumatic as reliving some parts were difficult. But, writing this book is something I have thought about for years and I felt an enormous sense of achievement when it was done,” she said.
The books opens with black and white photos at the Kruger National Park and she chose to also end off her story back at one of Africa’s largest game reserves.
There are now 200 copies of the 186-page book available for purchase. To buy a copy for R200, contact Dianne via email at diwhite888@gmail.com.
Caxton Local Media Covid-19 reporting
