Helen Slabbert

Helen Slabbert was born on the 11th September 1898 as Helen Ruth van der Meulen, daughter of Rev. Rudolf Hendrik Theron van der Meulen and Isabella Helen Spiers Botha, of Vanrhynsdorp (South Africa). Her parents later moved to Bellville, near Cape Town.
After school, Helen obtained her teaching certificate and subsequently taught at Swellendam and later at Malmesbury. It was at Malmesbury that she met Jan Daniel Slabber, her future husband, who was a local bank clerk. When they got married, her husband had his surname changed to Slabbert (which actually was the original form used by his family). They had a daughter, Helen Botha, and a son, Johan Daniel. The family later moved to Senekal, then Cradock and eventually Bellville.
After Jan's death in 1973, Helen settled in Magnolia, an old age home in Bellville. It was here that she wrote and published her memoir, Van Skotland tot in Vanrhynsdorp (1981).
Helen Ruth Slabbert died on the 21st January 1988. Apart from two children she also left eleven grandchildren.