GRAAFF-REINET NEWS - Eira Maasdorp (85) is a multi-talented woman. This local legend was born in Graaff-Reinet and grew up on the farm, Nooitgedacht, now a national heritage site.
She is the owner of Reinet Antiques for 53 years and she has no plans to retire.
Maasdorp was an only child. She recalls a happy childhood, helping her mother and horse riding with her father. "I was my father's son," she says.
"I caught the collecting bug as a child," she says. Maasdorp has a passion for sourcing and saving all things old - furniture, houses, memorabilia and lately, trees. Her cavernous shop on Church Street houses a vast collection of objects. It's a wonderland for collectors. Her shop is home to a 100-year-old fruitcake curated on a fireplace mantelshelf.
Eira and Charles Maasdorp married young. "I went to his 21st birthday with a friend, but I left with my future husband." The couple have been married for 66 years and had four children. And Maasdorp proudly notes that she has 11 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
In 1965 when Maasdorp's father died the couple moved to Nooitgedacht. Here, this "farmer's wife", as she refers to herself, opened her first shop in one of the farm's outbuildings.
She recalls that people would drop in at any time of the day to purchase heritage furniture and antique items. 'They would stay on for lunch or supper and eventually, it became too much. Charles suggested I opened a shop in town."
The first shop was in Parsonage Street. She employed staff and would come in to manage the shop twice a week - when bringing the children to and from boarding school. Then, 35 years ago, Maasdorp moved to the current premises in Church Street where she is assisted by Sinah Kleinbooi.
Graaff-Reinet Heritage Society
But her obsession with fighting against the destruction of all things old and then breathing new life into them is not only confined to movable objects. Maasdorp was a founding member of the Graaff-Reinet Heritage Society. The first building she 'rescued' was the old Moravian church that was earmarked for demolition.
She and a few concerned residents intervened, which ultimately led to the restoration of the building by Anton Rupert. With the assistance of the Rupert Foundation, she has restored dozens of heritage buildings in Graaff-Reinet. "I think my husband will divorce me if I do another house."
Hospice
21 years ago she initiated the Hospice with the Methodist Minister John Harman. "We started with one room in the hospital." Today the Camdeboo Hospice Camdeboo Hospice, a registered Non-Profit Organisation, provides a holistic home-based palliative care service to those infected and affected by life-limiting diseases.
The hospice serves five towns in the area.
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