Teresa Williams is leaving the Vryheid Herald after over a quarter of a century’s service…
Teresa’s face and voice is synonymous with the Herald. She has been part of the company for 26 years after starting as a part-time typist for the paper in 1994. At that stage, Teresa only worked three days a week when the Herald was still owned by Terry Bunge.
A year later, she was employed full-time in sales, but that was not her passion. Another year later, she was appointed as a full-time typist who was responsible for the typing of all editorial, as well as the manual layout of the paper. “We did ‘spoeg en plak’ at that time,” she laughs as she tells her story. She vividly remembers the days when the Herald was still ‘knock and drop’ and delivered free of charge at all the houses. She smiles as she remembers when they had to work long hours and drive back and forth to Dundee to get the Herald and the Courier printed, which was in black and white only. The paper was bought by Caxton Local Media in 1997, and Teresa was part of the transition process of computerising the paper. She is grateful to Caxton for all the training courses and workshops to enable her and the rest of the team to work smoothly. “The Vryheid Herald will always be part of me. I have met so many people and had many ups and downs, of which the ups were more than the downs. I love the paper and I love Vryheid. I will never leave the town, but it’s time for me to move on,” she says tearfully. “I would like to thank Caxton for allowing me to work at the paper for 26 years… and I want to thank Christel, my co-worker of 26 years, for her support and love throughout it all. I will also miss all my other colleagues at the Herald; we had good laughs and other days good cries together.” Teresa is uncertain of her exact plans for the future, but is certain that whatever it holds will be as successful as her time at the paper.
She will be missed by her colleagues and by the regular customers who pop in on a Thursday morning to buy the paper. The Vryheid Herald loses a very valuable person, dedicated employee and talented Graphic Designer, but we wish Teresa all the best in her future endeavours and hope to still see her friendly face as often as possible.
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