Page 253 - The Diary of A. H. W. Behrens

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1926
After she had died, I moved into her house until I relocated to Brits in February 1927.
My dear wife got the uncurable shaking palsy, a type of Huntington’s disease, and was no longer in control of her limbs that were constantly shaking. Her grandmother was
said to have had the same disease. This carried on for many years. When I moved to Bethanie after the death of my sister Christine, I left my wife in Waaikraal with Franz and Lissy and paid them ₤ 3 per month for food and maintenance. But when I discovered that Lissy took little care of her mother, I fetched her to stay with me in Bethanie, built a room next to sister Christine’s house and hired a young girl Helene Joubert to take care of my wife and to run our household in Bethanie. Helene took good care of my wife and I could do the work in the big congregation. Nothing helped, not even the hot springs in Warmbad where Helene and I took her in August 1926. She died suddenly on 12 September 1926, faithfully cared for by Helene. Lissy now has the same disease as her mother, even a little worse, and Franz Roos suffers quite a bit.