I didn’t write a bio for our 20th reunion, so I’ll try to keep it short.
After leaving school, I studied a BCom at UCT. Following my sister Janet’s terrible car accident in 1993, I moved back to Johannesburg, did my articles part time through Unisa, did my articles through Deloitte, and qualified as a CA. After two and a bit years in London, I moved back to Johannesburg at the end of 1999 and joined the consulting world through the corporate and international tax departments of Deloitte. In January 2011, I joined Massmart who had been my biggest client. For those who don’t know Massmart, our biggest shareholder is Walmart and Massmart trades as Makro, Builders Warehouse, Game, DionWired, Fruitspot and many others. I head up what the Americans like to call “Tax Controversy” and oversee all the issues we have with Revenue Authorities in 14 sub-Saharan Africa countries including South Africa. They are not very friendly, not at all!
I should have studied medicine.
I met my soulmate, Mark Feather, at a Smashing Pumpkins concert in November 2000. And Gill, he did have THAT body.
He had a passion for motorbikes and we would do many trips in South Africa with friends. One of our trips was from Arusha in Tanzania to Pangani on the coast, and then on to Zanzibar (on a dhow not a motorbike J). This all ended for me when our daughter, Erin Lily Feather was born on 14 August 2009. I had struggled for many years to fall pregnant and Erin was eventually conceived via IVF. So, she was just six weeks old when we had our 20th and I was too exhausted to think about writing a bio. I think I cried more than she did for the first four months, which Jo can attest to.
Mark also had a passion for sport. He ran 11 Comrades (his 10th has someone else, so his 11th was to get his green number) and many other marathons. He also had a passion for paddling and paddled many marathons including the Duzi, Umkomaas, Fish, Thuli. I seconded many of these races, sometimes reluctantly. Mark also loved to surfski and would spend many hours paddling up and down the Eastern Cape and Natal coasts. Although I always worried about his motorbikes, it was his sport that took his life.
On 15 November 2014, Mark died in a surfski accident in the sea off East London. That day was our 14th “happily unmarried” anniversary. Mark had entered the Peter Marlin Surf-Ski Race. Although conditions were expected to turn very bad, the organisers allowed the race to continue assuming they would only come in when the race was long over. Since his death, many new regulations were put in place to prevent an incident like this occurring again. That is a hard and bitter pill for me to swallow. Mark’s death was an accident that should never have happened and has devastated, not just me, Erin and our families, but all of the hundreds of friends that he had. Mark’s body was found 3 days later on a beautiful beach near Trennerys in the Transkei. His memorial was held on 27 November, which would have been his 43rd birthday. Erin was 5.
https://www.nsri.org.za/2014/11/surf-skier-missing-at-sea/ there is a picture of Mark and Erin on the day she was born at the bottom of the article.
After Mark’s death, I moved back in with my parents and my brain injured sister, Janet. Although less than ideal for me, with the hours that I work, and the need for me to travel into Africa occasionally, it made and still does make sense for Erin to have a stable family base (and dogs). Apart from being a father figure, my Dad is my au-pair J I take Erin to school in the morning but he does everything else. The two of them have a very special bond and hopefully she is keeping him young.
Erin turned 10 in August this year and what a blessing she has been. I could not imagine life without her. She is loving, kind, funny, happy, gregarious, enthusiastic (mostly), diligent and loves school and her friends. Mark was an excellent and hands-on from the start. He adored her. Erin does not like to be sad and will not dwell on it. She talks about Mark all the time, keeping only his happy memories alive. Like the fact that he used to eat feathers out of his pillow and got a new one for Christmas from my mom every year. Erin is just an amazing kid, not just because she is mine. Jo and Tee are her godmothers, and I know they would agree.
We miss Mark terribly but we have a wonderful support structure of family and friends that get us through. Many who miss Mark terribly too. Erin has been at St. Mary’s since grade 000 and is now in grade 4. Dudu’s Jasmine and Erin are in the same class J. I have made many, many good friends through school, mostly old St. Mary’s girls, who form a large part of our support structure. SMOGS really are a special bunch.
I look forward to seeing some of you and will be thinking of those that can’t make it.
Love Cath Coe xxx
PS Nicky White who calls me “miss smarty pants”, I got 17% for my first accounts exam at UCT. I think my parents might have passed out JJJ
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