Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
‘Call the midwife’ – District Six style
More than fifty years ago, Penelope Holmes trained at PMH – an experience she’ll never forget, writes YAZEED
WITH just a few photographs, retired midwife Penelope Holmes relates numerous stories of District Six, where she cared for mothers and their newborn babies decades ago.
Holmes, 74, was born in Pretoria, studied nursing in Pietermaritzburg and by 1963 found herself in District Six as a trainee midwife at the Peninsula Maternity Hospital (PMH).
Along with other trainees, Holmes lived in the area before it was annihilated by forced removals under apartheid’s segregation laws.
The defunct PMH in Caledon Street is now being converted into the new Community Health Centre scheduled to open early next year.
The centre is meant to serve District Six residents who have returned to the area via the land claims process, as well neighbouring communities where two facilities have been closed by the provincial health department.
After completing her nursing qualification, Holmes decided to specialise as a midwife and heard that PMH was “the place to train”.
“I’d never heard of District Six but I had heard about PMH. I did a bit of research,” recalls Holmes.
“I came to Cape Town and stayed in the nurses’ home because I didn’t have family in the Cape. It was a one-year training (programme).”
Holmes recalls how midwives used to walk through District Six visiting pregnant women or mothers who had just given birth.
In one of her photographs, Holmes holds a baby in a bathtub while the baby’s mother is visible in bed in the background.
“The (Cape) Malay people were particularly keen to feed us. Whenever we went on (house) call they always brought out plates of savouries or sweet cakes to eat,” remembers Holmes.
“The area we covered was huge and we walked everywhere. We walked from one part of the district to another.
“The hospital had a record of woman who were going to have babies or who had just had a baby. We would call on the mothers to see how the babies were.”
Holmes remembers some buildings in District Six were really run down due to neglect.
“In some cases the stairs had rotted away and we had to have torches with us. It was dark (in the building). Sometimes at the bottom of the stairs were drunks singing away. But they never bothered us.
“We never had bad experiences. It was always a respectful experience for us. We were happy.”
Working in District Six offered Holmes views of a world she had not known while growing up in a small town.
“This was the brothel and it was called the Blue Angel and it was opposite PMH in Mount Street,” says Holmes, while pointing to one photograph.
“One night I was writing my report and all the patients were sleeping. Suddenly I heard a loud noise and lots of voices screaming and laughing.
“I looked down from the first floor and there were all the ‘ladies of the night’ around a lamppost and there was a man wrapped around the pole hiding his lack of clothing.
“I alerted the hospital security and that was soon sorted out and the man could escape. He must have been off a boat that came in the harbour.”
Holmes says midwives were respected in the community they served.
“We walked from PMH to Adderley Street. We were never accosted by any of the public,” she says.
“When we went into the city in civilian clothes, they (locals) knew we were from PMH. People would greet you and you would greet them, even if we didn’t know each other’s names.
“It was very relaxed. Everybody knew who we were and we knew them.”
After completing her training year at PMH, Holmes left for England where she lived and worked for a number of years. She then returned to work at Groote Schuur hospital in a unit headed by well-known heart surgeon Christiaan Barnard. Holmes eventually retired from nursing to “become a housewife” and care for her children.
Her memories of District Six always stayed with her. When Holmes started painting as a hobby, she looked at one of her old photographs of Vogelsgesang Street in District Six and re-imagined the drab wall in blue paint.
Notes on the back of her photographs indicate that she also photographed Williams Street, Hanover Street, the Seven Steps which “locals called Murder Mile” and the local opera house residents called Buckingham Palace.
“We saw a whole range of human life, from the very old to tiny babies,” says Holmes.
“It was an honour to have trained there (PMH). I have spoken to people in various countries and they haven’t experienced what we did in District Six. It was very special.
“I’m having to go back 52 years ago now. I have probably forgotten all sorts of wonderful things.
“But I remember it with great fondness that I was allowed to be in the community.”
Holmes adds: “It’s like an internal movie in my brain. It’s (PMH) not just a building. It’s the people I remember. District Six was very much a community that I haven’t seen since or anywhere and I have travelled to 43 countries.
“They were very special people. I appreciate the opportunity and honour of being in that area.
“We gave mothers reassurance that they were doing well. When you’d just had a baby in an overcrowded community you need that.”