Remembering Babs Wilkinson, 1922–2023

Joy Constance Mary Wilkinson (née Coggan) was born in England in 1922.The youngest of four children, she was nicknamed Baby, which turned into Babs. Her family moved to SouthAfrica during the Depression, when she was a child, first living in CapeTown and then moving to Johannesburg, where she described hearing strange metallic sounds, soft whistles, and ploofploof noises at night. What in the world was she hearing?

These newAfrican sounds were the pre-dawn patrol of ox-wagons hauling produce to market. She was hearing the footfalls of ox teams in the dusty roadbed, the clinking of their harness, and the whistles of the touleiers.

Babs grew up in Jo’burg, married Murray Wilkinson, and they raised their family of four children there. He worked in packaging and was an accomplished artist. She worked as a bookkeeper and later at the WitsArt Gallery. In 1981 they retired to Knysna, where they enjoyed a rich assortment of new friends and new landscapes, and Babs became a book binder

After Murray died in 1991, Babs visited her son Justin in the United States twice and her daughter Cathy in Belgium several times. Sons Greg and Rod tended her old age—she reached her century in 2022 and made it to age 101 in 2023.Today her five grandchildren take after her as citizens of the great big fascinating world, living in CapeTown, London, Bournemouth, Houston, and Chicago, and her great granddaughters are in Bournemouth and London. Babs was dignified and elegant and always also gracious and funny—she was easy to love.

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