At the ripe old age of 101 years, Marguerite Horn (nee Retief) could still quote bits from Wordsworth: "I wandered lonely as a cloud, when all at once I saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils..."! Daffodils were her favourite flowers.
She was born on 26 August 1914 and spent her first 10 years in Malawi (then Nyasaland). Her parents were missionaries and Marguerite and her brothers and sisters were sent to South Africa to Retief and Murray family members to complete their school and university education. After receiving a BA degree (mathematics and English) at the University of Cape Town, she went to Stellenbosch University for a teachers diploma.
This is where she met Mike Horn, a theology student, and both became deeply involved in Moral Rearmament. They were married in 1940 and three years later Mike joined the allied forces in Europe as a Chaplain of the Dutch Reformed Church.
When Mike returned after the warthey had a very strong sense to leave the ministry and in 1948 the family settled on a small farm in Vaalharts, near Kimberley. Their four children grew up on this farm. Marguerite taught English and Maths at local schools while Mike gave his full attention to farming and local issues. “You can serve people equally well from a tractor seat as from the pulpit!” he said.
In 1976 they moved to Stellenbosch and for the next 17 years they opened their home and their hearts to countless students and visitors. In their visitors book the names of about 1 500 students appear, as well as signatures of dozens of international visitors.
Years later former students would recall the tasty meals and the “sympathetic ears” that meant so much to young people, far from their homes.
Marguerite had 11 grandchildren and her great-grandchildren now number 20. At her 100thbirthday celebration the great-grandchildren entertained the guests with some of the verses in her booklet of poems, to the delight of “Ouma ’Riet”. She passed away peacefully at her daughter’s home on 24 April 2016.
