From Canada with love: The story of Barb Robinson and her uncle, David Keay
“Being able to visit my uncle’s grave was a part of me, etched in my heart,” said Barb Robinson from Canada.
Barb Robinson from Canada has finally crossed off visiting her uncle’s grave from her bucket list.
Robinson, who had sought for years help to search for the descendants of her late great-uncle David Keay, made her way to Brakpan Cemetery on February 8.
A man who stays in Geduld made the grave’s location possible.
Robinson said she never met her uncle because she was born 13 years after he passed away.
“Everything I know I gathered through old letters and photos I kept from my parents and grandparents,” said Robinson.
Part of the information Robinson has about her late uncle is that he relocated to Springs in 1936 from his parental home in Saskatchewan, Canada, after his uncle, Sandy Keay, offered him a job at the Daggafontein Gold Mine.
Robinson said a few days before her uncle’s promotion to another position at the mine, an accident occurred, resulting in terrible injuries to his arm and leg.
“They wanted to amputate, but he wouldn’t have it, so he died of blood poisoning – gangrene.”
David died on September 27, 1939, aged 21.
Robinson said when she was at the cemetery, she didn’t feel sadness or grief but pride and peace.
Pride in accomplishing a tribute to her uncle, whom they had loved and never forgotten.
“The peace came from realising the pain I had carried for so long could never be cast away. I don’t know how to feel. I have mixed emotions,” Robinson said.
“This is a moment I have always wanted. I will take all his memories and this new one, stack them carefully with all the other important moments of my life, and move forward. Bundled up together, the load is easier to carry.”
Robinson brought maple syrup from Canada to honour her uncle, saying the maple leaf-shaped bottle is their flag and has emerged as a symbol of their national identity.
