Family thanks supporters
MASS FOR MURDERED COUPLE
ROGER and Christine Solik’s children had a “wonderful” upbringing in a tight-knit family.
“We were all we had in a way,” the couple’s son, Gregory said yesterday.
He was speaking to the press after a thanksgiving mass held for his parents in Kloof.
Last Friday, the Soliks were reported missing from the Nottingham Road estate they lived in, after a concerned neighbour went to check on them and found their house ransacked.
Fifty-seven-year-old Christine’s body was found in a river some hours later. After a threeday long search Parkinson’s sufferer Roger, 66, was found in the same area.
The Soliks were born in Wales and came to South Africa in 1981, a year after they were married. Roger saw a job advertisement in the newspaper – for a post at Afrox – which said, “Come to sunny South Africa”. He applied for it and was successful.
“They came on a two-year contract and never left,” Gregory said. Their four children – Gregory, Alex, Brendon and Jessica – were born and raised in KwaZulu-Natal. They lived in Kloof until 2002, when they decided to move to Cape Town so the children could attend university there.
Gregory described his father as “an incredible man”. “When he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and he started going to group, they all thought he was the neurologist,” he recalled.
Roger’s father died when he was a boy and he dropped out of school at 16. He went to night school and worked his way up through the ranks at Afrox.
Educating their children was a top priority for Roger and Christine.
“We grew up in the local library,” Gregory said, “It was a non-negotiable that we would go to university – mostly because my dad had missed out.”
The couple retired in Cape Town, where Gregory and Jessica also settled. Alex and Brendon ended up in Joburg.
Roger and Christine later moved to the Midlands, but had recently decided to return to the Cape.
At the time of their deaths they were in the process of selling their home.
Alex said yesterday that his father had an “adventurous spirit”.
“He was someone who was always looking for new experiences. He loved to cook and cooked every evening… Some nights there would be candlelit dinners,” Alex said.
Christine, Gregory said, loved being a mother.
“She worked at a local playschool when we were growing up,” he said, “She loved kids.”
The family were last all together when Gregory and his wife, Calli, wed in Cape Town in December.
The night before his parents disappeared, Alex had Facetimed his mother.
“She spoke to my daughter, Lucy,” he said, “She was in high spirits.”
Gregory and Alex said the family were overwhelmed by the support from friends and felt it was a testament to the people their parents were.
“We’ve all felt very carried over the last week, especially during the period when my dad was missing,” Gregory said.
Their family overseas was in shock. “It has been particularly hard for my mom’s mom, who is 83,” Alex said, “She just buried her husband.”
They thanked the SAPS for their work and local community network SA Can and founder Brian Jones for his assistance.
A funeral mass for the Soliks will be held in Cape Town next week.
Investigations are continuing.