Cape Town - For the locals and business owners of Belmont Square in Rondebosch, 80-year-old Niomi Ward was the true beauty among the flowers she sold each day.
A few friends and family gathered to celebrate Ward’s birthday at Lyra’s coffee shop on Monday - paying tribute to the woman who had spent the last five decades selling flowers.
Ward - a second generation flower seller - was nine when her mother passed away. As the eldest female sibling among six kids, she assumed the role of caregiver as her father struggled to find work to support the family.
“My father would grow vegetables in our garden to feed us. He also grew flowers, and we decided to sell the flowers for extra money. That is how the family business started.”
She would nurture, harvest and preserve the flowers before taking two taxis to Rondebosch where she sold them from a basket nestled in the crook of her arm.
“It was apartheid then and I remember one day taking the wrong train and worrying about it. I was so scared that I would be arrested when I walked through the areas cordoned off for whites only. When I arrived on my corner, I was so relieved. It was the only time I really worried about the apartheid system,” she said.
When Ward was 19, she fell in love with the father of her only son.
“He was so shy when he told me that we should get married,” she laughed. “He said, ‘Niomi, we know each other for a long time and we must tie the knot’. I, of course, said yes and then we went to Coloured Affairs (department) and said our vows.”
Her husband passed away seven years ago at the age of 65, and her son - well known jazz vocalist Leslie Ward - has been her comfort ever since. He crooned his mother’s favourite song - Paul Simon’s Mother and Child Reunion.
The small crowd was also serenaded by Sylvia Mdunyelwa and John Pretorius whose song, Sekiyolo Ke Nako, is said to have made Nelson Mandela dance.
Cape Argus