Page 115 - The Diary of A. H. W. Behrens

52
1875
Only a few times had I seen this girl when she then suddenly disappeared for a full year and I did not know whereto, just
as I had got to know the family. After a year she returned. She was with a pastor in Braunschweig for a year in order to be re- trained. From then on I always saw her. “Nothing burns as hot as love of which no-one knows,” as the saying goes!!
With this love I forgot my first love of the small Rosa Hollard in Natal who made the first impression on me. In letters from Natal I heard that she had got engaged with Advocate Keet from Pretoria, but she stayed a special friend of mine until today where I am writing this.
Then I got to know the civil servant Hermann Reicher and
his family in Hermannsburg. I was taken up like a child in
the house and became a brother of the sons Fritz, Georg and Johannes and the daughter Mariechen. From 1875 to 1878 I was their child until they emigrated to Natal in South Africa. Also here in Africa we remained good friends. Now, in 1943, only Johannes Reicher and his children’s children are still alive.
Then I was a good friend of the baker Albers and his family, relatives of my dear mother, who was a born Albers. Their many children Marie, Heinrich, Friedrich, Johannes, Christine and Auguste remained my intimate friends here in South Africa until they died. Today, only Auguste is still living in Port Shepstone in Natal. All others are dead.