Hello friends and fellow readers. Are you amongst those who didn’t see or couldn’t read my post on 20 January? It was about my friend and mentor, Rica Hodgson, who died recently.

I am really sorry that it didn’t reach all of you who are interested in South African history and the anti-apartheid movement. This was due to technical problems with my blog, and possibly to the recent Facebook outage.

Rica Hodgson’s Memorial Service in South Africa

On Sunday, I received from Rica’s family the details of her memorial service to be held in Johannesburg on 4 February. She was a brave and inspiring woman, a colleague of Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela. She will be celebrated by many who appreciate her enormous contribution to the struggle for freedom and democracy in South Africa.

I can’t go to the service, but reading of it has made me quite emotional again as I think of her huge impact on me personally. Despite her involvement in national issues of enormous consequence, she took the time to rescue and look after me. I was pregnant and friendless, alone for the first time in the strange, vast world of London. She may well have changed the course of my life.

How can I commemorate Rica from afar?

So, to further honour Rica Hodgson, I have spruced up my original post to improve overall readability and impact. I’m also taking the unusual step of re-publicising that post to my mailing list and social media accounts. (If you’ve already read it, the content is the same, including the excerpt from my soon-to-be-published memoir When I was Bad.)

I would be so grateful if you would share the link with anyone who may be interested: https://ruthhartley.com/rica-hodgson-foot-soldier-freedom-friend-hero/

Your feedback and questions on that post would be very welcome. Thank you to those who have already commented.

Ruth