Janet, to me, was always "Granny McTavish". And she was a wonderful Granny.

Janet was also a brave and inspiring woman. Having grown up in the small and remote town of Dordrecht, she was independent enough to marry a man working in the even more remote colony of Northern Rhodesia. Alec's work on the copper mines kept them in Zambia many years, and they later moved to Pietermaritzburg in 1974. Janet then lived in Golden Harvest from 1996, until having to move to Rosehaven in 2003.

I am lucky to have many good memories of Granny McTavish. As a child, my sisters and I had great holiday visits to see Granny in far-away places, like Zambia, or Pietermaritburg. I remember eating mangoes at the poolside on a hot day in her back yard in Kitwe, Zambia; and finding gooseberries while exploring the wilds of (pre-development) Town Bush Valley.

As a teenager, I had the even better fortune of being able to walk up the road to visit Granny and Grampa, especially for Janet's famous Sunday lunches. Granny provided the most amazing feasts: roast goose or chicken, with roast potato, onions and gravy; fresh salads, often from greens grown in her garden; with exotic fruit salads or home-made icecream for dessert. There was no such thing as a bad meal, when Granny was there. Then, when the cleaning up and dishes were done (Alec would usually chase me away), we could go run and wander around in her garden, one of the most beautiful in Pietermaritzburg. Granny loved having lots of flowers in her garden. Later on, there would be afternoon tea, with cake or cookies. Janet's fruitcake was a favourite, I still haven't found anything to compare. Sometimes we would sit on the veranda chairs; sometimes inside, in the part of the lounge which looked like her trophy room, if you happened to look up. (I heard Janet was quite a tennis player in her youth; however I only met her when she was the champion of the household). Janet was always a wonderful hostess, even in her later days at Golden Harvest.

Granny McTavish was a champion in other areas too. When Janet was unable to play tennis, she took up painting, and decorated the walls of her house with paintings of flowers. She volunteered and helped a lot with the local church in Pietermaritzburg, and was well respected by the community. She also corresponded with an amazing number of friends, many in far away places, some being those she had helped decades before in Zambia. Every December, Janet and Alec's lounge walls were festooned with Christmas cards; it boggled the mind how she ever had the time to keep in contact with everyone.

She was a thoughtful, caring person with deep feelings. It hurt her a lot when those old friends she knew died, and even more when she was eventually unable to write her own letters to the few remaining of her old friends. It is a hard thing to survive your peers, and the hardest blow of all was losing her beloved husband, Alec, in 1996.

However, Janet always tried to put on a cheerful face. Her face was suited to being cheerful; she had so many laugh lines that I think she had forgotten how to frown. That in itself tells you a lot about the person she was. Granny loved to make puns and little jokes, and her sense of humour stayed with her to the end. It tickled her when her family caught the joke.

Janet and Alec were never wealthy; but Granny made them rich in social and family life. Janet was able to attend the weddings of three of her grandchildren, and played with all four of her great grandchildren. She would have loved staying around a little while longer, if she could, hoping for more.

Granny died fairly peacefully on a Tuesday afternoon, after suffering a pulmonary embolism (a few days after a bad fall, and subsequent operation on her leg). She had no pain and only a brief amount of distress before she fell asleep. Two of her daughters, Helen and Lesley, were with her. It was a relatively good way to go, no pain at all.

Janet McTavish (nee Fish) - April 9, 1917 to January 20, 2004.

David Barry