Page 99 - The Diary of A. H. W. Behrens

44
1875 – 1880
I had left school in March 1873 and remained at home until 1875, a full two years, and helped my parents wherever I could, was at various mission stations and mission feasts and learnt Setswana and went on a journey to the diamond field with Missionary Backeberg. I was 20 years old and needed
to choose a profession. McLaren & Co. Heidelberg wanted to have me as a clerk with an initial salary of about ₤ 90, then I would have become a merchant. Father wanted me to become a missionary and because I did not want to study further and because I was permitted to enter the Mission House at the age of 21, I decided to take this route.
In March 1875, after Hermann Hohls had just brought a shipment of women to Transvaal, I accompanied him back to Natal and stayed a few months with my old friend Wilhelm Ahrens who had the children’s school in Hermannsburg, but
I stayed in the large house with Superintendent Hohls. In the school I met Miss Rosa Hollard, daughter of Advocate Hollard in Pretoria. We got to know each other very well and she stayed my friend as Mrs Keet and later as widow until 1943, when I was 89 years old and she was 85 years.