Behold the beauty of Greyling
MELVILLE – Lorna Greyling shares how success goes far beyond a silk pageant sash.
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What defines beauty? Is it a woman’s slim frame, her long wavy hair or the sexiness she oozes when she walks into a room? To a few beauty can only be defined at face value. To the observant, beauty can be seen deep in the soul as it permeates through their actions and into the lives of others.
Lorna Greyling would have you believe the latter and then makes you realise that physical beauty is just an accessory and not the entire outfit. A wife and a doting mother to three girls, she has been nominated as the SA finalist at the Mrs Africa pageant which will take place in South Africa in December.
The pageant casts its net across the continent in search of a powerful woman who best embodies their requirements. Greyling was chosen as the best to represent our country continentally. She prides herself on her hard work and most loved roles of both mother and wife. “Relationships don’t just work automatically, sustaining them is never easy, they need your entire investment into making them work,” she said.
She recalled how six years ago her family faced one of their biggest hardships when her husband was kidnapped and held for ransom in Nigeria. An ordeal that lasted 10 harrowing days. “The effects of crime go far beyond just that one day or in our case those 10 days, they stay with you and force you to deal with them head on,” said Greyling. After the incident she and her family received counselling and she started hosting motivational talks.
Greyling divulged that should she win she would work towards raising money for people affected by crime aiding them with the tools they need to deal with trauma. Along with that hope, she is also raising funds for the charity, Dignity Dreams , that assists girl pupils by aiding them with sanitary towels to not miss a day of school. “If people just donated R200 they would help a girl pupil stay in school,” she said. Her vision is to have people donate the money towards girl pupils so they would receive washable sanitary wear that would reusable for the at least three years.
She concluded that people should never define themselves by their accolades. “If you lose all your accolades, who are you thereafter?” questioned Greyling. She expressed that goals should be set and achieved, but one’s worth should be determined not by what one has accomplished but rather by who one is and how one has managed to affect change passed the recognition.