Mayor

One of my boys came back from a call out to a charitable institution, and he said he met my cousin who was replacing and repairing the furniture there. I assumed it was Ahmed he was referring to. 

Ahmed, my first cousin recently retired and keeps himself busy by doing pro bono carpentry for local orphanages and charities.

I then went on to explain to them, that my cousin had a really interesting story.

When he was young and newly married, they went in search of a farm store. 

Somewhere they could put down roots.

He met with old man Peattie, who owned vast tracks of land between Pietermaritzburg and Greytown.

My cousin and the old man hit it off and they came to a really good agreement on the shop.

Over the years the shop was a hit and rental fixed very low. Only because my cousin and the old man were friends. That the old bugger was super mega wealthy, might have had something to do with that.

The only worry they had was that someday the old man would move on, and my cousin and his wife would be forced to deal with the old man's bratty kids. And the honeymoon would be over.

At this point, my cousin says he had a group of Moulanas visit his store.
They spent a few nights and when they were leaving they asked him if he wanted their advice or prayer on any special matter. My cousin explained his predicament to them and they said they would pray for him.

A few months later, he got word that his benefactor had passed away.

The kids who inherited the estate had made no secret of the fact they hated him and would raise the rent till they got him out.

Next morning he got a call from the lawyers asking him to meet them in Pietermaritzburg. When he asked what it was about, he was told curtly that it was about his renting the shop from the Peattie family.

He put on his good clothes, or at least his least threadbare shirt headed to the big city.

The lawyer told my cousin that the son wanted to renegotiate the rent and they were about to draft such a letter when they discovered that there was an "option to buy" clause in the old man's will..
Seems the old man stated that my cousin had the first option to buy the plot that the shop stood on for just 200 thousand. This equates to two million in today's money. So my cousin who didn't have that kind of. Money borrowed and scraped together the money just so he would be free from the sons.

What he hadn't realised at the time was that he wasn't just buying the shop at a very good price, he was now the owner of the town of Cramond! The post office, police station, filling station, school and the whole shebang! All became his tenants.

We jokingly referred to him as the "mayor" of Cramond, when in fact he was the owner.

Anyway this was the cousin who, having  retired, spends all  his time, replacing and repairing furniture at charitable institutions in Durban, and he swears that its all a result of the prayers that those strange, odd holy men made for him, all those years ago, after he gave them a place to stay. 

I do have a very colourful family.

M Parak 2017.