Mary Louise Hattingh turns 100!

by Admin · July 24, 2022

Mary Louise Hattingh (neé Carratu) was born in Cava de’ Tirreni in the Province of Salerno on the 24^th July 1922, the youngest of eight children. After her mother died of Spanish Flu at the age of 47, her father brought the children to South Africa on the HMS Edinburgh Castle – the passenger list indicates their departure from Southampton on 7^th February 1930.

Nigel was their destination. Sometime after that they moved to Braamfontein, Johannesburg, staying opposite Holy Trinity Church, where Mary attended the convent run by King Dominicans. Her father, a barber on Louis Botha Avenue, Orange Grove, eventually met his second wife, an au pair for the Oppenheimers. Later, as young adults, Mary moved with her sisters to Malvern East and all were actively involved with the Blessed Sacrament parish, run by the Paulist Fathers from the USA. When Mary married Vic Hattingh in 1947, Fr Martin Kiloran was invited from Bez Valley to accompany the Paulists and participate in the wedding ceremony as the Marriage Officer (a role denied to the American missionaries).

Mary and Vic had three sons, Gerhard, Michael and John, who all grew up in Springs, the land of the Dominicans (with Fathers Damian McGrath and Emil Blazer of fond memory). Her son Gerhard was ordained to the priesthood, Fr Gerhard Hattingh, retired, who served in Bez Valley, La Rochelle and Actonville and later the Seminary. Fr Hattingh cared for his mother for many years.

In 1985 Mary eventually re-located to Edenvale, and has remained a parishioner at St Therese, under the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Fr Joe Leatham (R.I.P.) played a great role in her life, and is always affectionately remembered. At present she is a resident at Tarentaal Retirement Village, having moved in 25 years ago.

Her “secret” to living a long life? Some talk of a daily whiskey, she says definitely no alcohol gets you there! Hard, physical (house!) work throughout her life, from childhood into those years in Springs, gave her an extremely strong heart, still strong today! But she acknowledges her gratitude to God who has looked after her down through the years and allowed her to live to 100 years. When she gets to Heaven she will ask God “Why?”, especially because most of her friends are there already.

Now it’s time to pray more often, talk to Jesus and Mary, enjoy contact (albeit limited) with family, and wonder what her five grand-children and two great-grand children are up to in the world (from Singapore to Australia, via Europe). Also there is the joy of friendships of (younger) fellow residents in the Retirement Village, but always cautious of that covid flu which hasn’t left us. But God is in control, she says.