The Self-Employed Housewife: The Seaman's Wife, #1

By Nadine May

This story is about an immigrant from Holland to South Africa in the 1970s and the relationship between the young wife and mother and her husband, who is a seaman. Every chapter is engaging, chatty dialogue between her, her two toddlers, and the people she interacts with while starting her own leather craft business from home.

From being a desperately unhappy housewife who finds her true calling after healing her psychic wounds, this spiritual odyssey is as intensely pleasurable as it is enlightening.

The book carries an uplifting message for any immigrant who wants to survive as a new arrival in a country with no support base and only a minimal understanding of English.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nadine May
• Release date: Apr 14, 2024
• ISBN: 9780796167088

Book preview

Nadine May

Acknowledgements

This book started as a series of short stories at Hubpages, an online writing platform. The response was overwhelming, and my publisher Robin Beck, asked me to consider collecting them into a novel.

At first, I was somewhat apprehensive, but then I realized that all the experiences we have from the moment we are born are valid no matter what they are. It makes us who we are today.

I must thank everyone who shaped my life into what it has become, from being a person who hated school due to being dyslexic to overcoming a lack of self-esteem to becoming a published author.

When do we awaken to our soul purpose? Not many people do, but I knew I was given a choice due to that one significant psychic experience and the dreams that followed over many years: the choice to follow an ascension path or stay asleep to who we are, divine spiritual beings having a human experience.

Nadine May

Introduction

One minute, a mother of two toddlers’ lives with her in-laws in Holland. And next, they are off, immigrating to South Africa to start a new life from scratch.

She learns to be a sailor’s wife but is forced to distance herself from men she never expected to run into. Money is tight, which motivated her to gain financial independence.

One day, she walked past a clothing boutique with leather handbags in the window. After hearing that they were handmade inspired her to investigate how to get started in leatherwork.

Her childhood fears emerge from her past when she embarks on a new career as a self-employed housewife. Her English improves through reading but triggers memories she had tried to keep hidden.

She meets new friends who expose her to esoteric knowledge, resulting in her inner unhappiness rising to the surface. Her mental turmoil from being exposed to an inexplicable experience during her daily routine shatters her perception of life in general. How was she ever going to share it with anybody?

Table of Contents

Nadine May

Chapter One

1974 – Durban – South Africa

Chapter Two

Becoming Self-Reliant on all Levels

Chapter Three

The Harbour of Durban

Chapter Four

Making up had Lightened her Mood

Chapter Five

People in the Neighbourhood

Chapter Six

The Party

Chapter Seven

Sunday Morning

Chapter Eight

Having Wheels

Chapter Nine

Being a Single Mom

Chapter Ten

Jan is Coming Home

Chapter Eleven

Allowing her to be True to Herself

Chapter Twelve

The Housewives of Palm Springs

Chapter Thirteen

A Ten-Hour Drive Lay Ahead

Chapter Fourteen

Ladysmith Breakfast

Chapter Fifteen

They had a Television

Chapter Sixteen

Returning Home

Chapter Seventeen

The Big Move to Port Elizabeth

Chapter Eighteen

Being Driven Around

Chapter Nineteen

Moving into their Own Home

Chapter Twenty

Yoga Classes

Chapter Twenty-One

Gemstone Carvings

Chapter Twenty-Two

The Hobbies Fair

Book 2

About the Author

She is the Author of:

Chapter One

1974 – Durban – South Africa

The palm trees that lined the boulevard on Durban’s Marine Parade brought back her childhood memories. As a child, she had been an avid collector of picture postcards with tropical plants and palm trees. Being born in the northern hemisphere must have been a mistake because her longing for a warm, almost tropical climate had always been her wish for as long as she could remember.

Hendrika hurry up.

Jan’s irritated tone swiftly took her out of her daydreaming. Her tall, lean husband hailed a taxi to take them to the harbour where the oil tanker he was to join as the first officer was docked. Lucas, her little boy of three, sulked with sadness. His father had given him his uniform cap, which he now wouldn’t wear. The troubled toddler was angry that his daddy was going away. His elder sister, who was very advanced for a five-year-old, showed great empathy by holding his hand when the taxi arrived. She needed to be careful since she could already pick up her mother’s depressed mood by showing concern. Sonja’s ability to pick up the moods of others was inherited from her. She could sense what grownups were thinking, which was different from what they said. That used to confuse her until she learned to stay silent.

Come, daddy needs to go. He will be back soon. She whispered, embracing both kids in the back of the taxi, not knowing how soon that would be. Jan expected it to be just over two months, which seemed like forever. Jan paid the driver, an Afrikaans-speaking middle-aged man, and instructed him to take his family back to King’s Hall.

After waving the ship goodbye from the quay, she promised them a treat. The waiting taxi dropped them off at the Marine Parade, where they could walk back to their furnished apartment in the middle of town, opposite the town hall. Her promise cheered them up, especially after buying them a soft serve from the ice-cream vendor near the playground.

The weather had a tropical feel to it. Her wish to live in a tropical climate had come true.

Whites Only

The kids played on the round-about while she rested on a bench that said ‘whites only’.  Here, she was on her own with her children in a strange country with an apartheid law she never knew about before she had arrived. She had been keen to emigrate to a warmer climate so she could get away from the ferociously lousy weather in Holland, but this horrible apartheid sign troubled her.

She had been excited when Jan had accepted a position as the first officer with Unicorn shipping line in South Africa as advertised in a Dutch newspaper because they offered fully paid travel tickets, including free accommodation for three months.

Mommy, look!

Sonja stood on top of the slide, and Lucas stood on the step behind her.

She is observing her two toddlers having fun, which has lifted her mood.

To immigrate again for good to a new country was much better than living back in Holland. She couldn’t stand the cold climate and the crowded living conditions after having lived for four years in Australia, where their little boy Lucas had been born.

A shipping company in Holland had told them that it would take at least six weeks for their crate filled with personal possessions to arrive in Durban, so in the meantime, she needed to find affordable rental accommodation. Her English was not fluent, but she felt sorry for herself for having no transport and not knowing a single person apart from the cleaning staff at the furnished apartment; she wouldn’t do it.

A tall man, she guessed in his thirties, joined her on the bench. He nodded and spoke to her in Afrikaans. She did not understand every word he said, but she could guess since Afrikaans were very close to Dutch. He was flirting and wanted to know if she was on her own.

Sorry, my English is poor, and I do not speak Afrikaans, but I can sort of understand it, being Dutch. She pointed at Sonja and Lucas, taking turns on the slide nearby with two other ‘white’ children. Two nannies were standing nearby, chatting to each other.

Staff came cheap in South Africa. She had been horrified to learn that there was a law in SA that separated people of different skin colours. How could she have missed that? How long had this apartheid law been legalized, surely well before they emigrated?

She got up from the bench, uneasy about being seen as an easy pickup. Come, you two, we must get to the shops before they close. Speaking out loud in Dutch disrupted the nanny’s conversation while the man got up and walked away.

In a way, she felt flattered for being flirted with. Jan liked her wearing tight-fitting tops, and she knew that he often admired her waistline. Her flared skirt, a gift from her wealthy sister in Holland, looked stunning. She knew that Jan liked it if other men would stare at her. It seemed to make him feel lucky. Other husbands would be upset, but not Jan.

When Sonja asked what shops, she whispered, OK, Bazaars, which worked because their treat would be a small toy. She could also do it with a little cheering-up gift for herself. Buying a happy mood was all she could do, for now, knowing it wouldn’t last. She knew very well that material gifts would not replace a down feeling, but it's all she could do now.

Her Dream of Financial Independence

Strolling past the street vendors on the pavement towards West Street cheered her up.

The weather was humid in Durban in January, but that didn’t bother her. Instead, the clothing boutiques with their colourful designs triggered her imagination. She was good at sewing. Maybe when her sewing machine arrived, she could start designing kiddie clothes.

Both kids were skipping along, hanging onto her hands. Their sadness was already forgotten. Then she spotted the most beautiful leather handbag ever. It had an image of a sunset with a palm tree carved onto the bag flap that mesmerized her.

Come on, you two! Mummy must quickly look at something in the shop. Please do behave. She knew that her three-year-old boy hated clothing shops because they had no toys.

Mommy, you promised.

Girly, yes, we will get to the OK bazaar, and you can choose something, as long as it is not too expensive.

The eager shop assistant took out the leather bag from the window but paled when she saw the price tag of R30.00. That was at least two weeks’ housekeeping money. When the girl explained it was handmade, it was as if somebody was whispering. If that is self-made, you can make it yourself.

Handmade, but how?

Her Mind was Buzzing with Exhilaration

After grocery shopping and buying them toys, they walked past a saddler business with a leather saddle in the window. Go inside and ask if they know how to make handbags from real leather. the voice in her head said. Hearing conversations in her head was normal, but she had better not reply out loud!

Getting out of the heat and humidity into a cool shop where the smell of leather was potent did not bother the children. They were too busy admiring their toys and could not wait to play with them.

Yes, can I help you?

The man had a kind expression. He was an Indian of about forty and spoke with an accent that she hadn’t heard before. He winked at the children and observed her as if they were close friends.

I want to learn how to make products from real leather, she blurted out. Her broken English did not seem to discourage the man.

Then you’ve come to the right place.

Really, can you show me?

Of course, let me show you what to start with. He came round to the front of the counter, took 3-year-old Lucas by the hand and walked to the back of the shop. That her little boy allowed that gave her the courage to follow him. There she saw what the man was about. Detailed scenes were even more beautiful than what was on the handbag carved on belt straps, which looked like an artist’s canvas.

May I ask where you’re from? Her Dutch accent had given her away.

She told him they had arrived a week ago in Durban in her broken English and that her husband had just sailed away today.

He encouraged her to buy at least three belt straps, one punching tool, three buckles with rivets, a tool to punch holes, and a small bottle of spirit dye. With that, she was eager to return to their apartment to try