Humour keeps committed car guard on the job

For the last 15 years, she has greeted you with a smile, looked after your vehicle and helped you pack your groceries away.

Kingsburgh Centre car guard Maureen Rolling celebrates 15 years on the job on 23 October. “I remember the exact day I started at Kingsburgh Centre as it was exactly two months after I moved to Toti from Ellisras,” she said.

Fed up with her husband constantly battling to find work, Maureen packed up her 10-year-old son Eben and eight-year-old daughter Fransisca, hiked to Pretoria and caught a train down to the coast.

Over the years she has ‘seen a lot of things’ at the centre. Recently she thwarted an armed robbery at the centre after drawing attention to the crime and her alertness averted a possible ATM robbery at the centre last year.

“One of the funniest things I’ve seen over the years involved a holidaymaker and his wife. He had bought a huge steak and she was complaining he had paid too much for it. He warned her to stop nagging, but she continued, so he took the steak out of the packaging and hit her with it. You have to have a sense of humour to do this job.”

Maureen is an intricate part of the Kingsburgh community. “Old people need someone to talk to. You get to know them and their lives. It’s all part of being a car guard. The sad part of my job is when I lose one of my old customers.

Unfortunately we encounter a lot of nasty people, but we also meet a lot of awesome ones. I see children growing up. One woman was pregnant when I started at the centre. Now her daughter is 14-years-old.”

Maureen has put both her children through high school. Eben (25) is studying human resources management in Upington. “Fransisca (23) was studying to be a social worker, but now she wants to study law in January, as she is working for an attorney in Hartebeespoort Dam.”

Maureen’s sister Alta is also a car guard at the centre and her brother Evert lives in Unkomaas. She works Monday to Friday to concentrate on her hobby, arts and crafts on the weekends. “I’m busy making beaded angels for Christmas at the moment. Customers often drop off their broken jewellery for me to fix as they know I love arts and crafts.”

If you climb out your vehicle at Kingsburgh Centre in the future and a pretty woman gives you a beaming smile, just know you have met Maureen, one of the friendliest car guards you will ever find. “I’m a people’s person. If you stuck me in an office, I would die.”