Cally Barlow broke down and wept on Wednesday explaining how she and her spouse, cricketing legend Eddie "Bunter" Barlow, were being forced to quit South Africa after a local insurance company had refused to pay crippling medical bills for treating her husband for a stroke.
Barlow, 61, a former world class test all-rounder acknowledged as a giant of the game during the 60s and 70s when he captained Western Province, suffered a stroke a year ago in Bangladesh where he was a national director of coaching.
He returned home in a wheelchair and was treated at a private clinic.
Since then, however, exorbitant medical bills have forced the Barlows to put their 180-hectare wine farm near Robertson on the market for R2,5-million. Once the farm is sold, they plan to fly to the United Kingdom to live with Barlow's 89-year-old mother-in-law in Wales, where he hopes to find a job as a development coach.
On Wednesday, after relating their anguish of the past year, Cally Barlow sobbed as she spoke of the few friends who had rallied to her husband's aid - while the United Cricket Board and the Western Province Cricket Association appeared to have turned their backs on his plight.
"I feel so upset for Eddie. He said he might look at selling his Springbok memorabilia to pay for pills, bills and everything," said a distraught Cally.
Eddie himself remains phlegmatic and said he did not feel South Africa cricket had snubbed him in his hour of need: "No. I've never felt deserted, ever. I don't think anybody deserves handouts and I've got a lot to be grateful for. I've had a privileged life and a great innings as a cricketer too," he said.
Although their farm had enjoyed a "superb harvest", the couple do not have money to bottle the wine. And, despite Barlow's reputation as one of the best cricketing brains in the country, with previous experience at provincial level and working as a specialist batting coach with Bob Woolmer in the national side, he said job offers had simply dried up since his stroke.
"What I really am is a coach. But there just do not appear to be positions available in South Africa and when there are, they seem to go to younger coaches with little experience," he said.
Cally Barlow told of the day their lives changed in Bangladesh a year ago and the subsequent trauma after she found her husband doubled over in the kitchen: "Eddie sat down to have a beer, but then spluttered and walked to the kitchen. He was gone a long time, then he was making funny noises. I leapt up and found him half fallen behind the fridge. It was a nightmare for me to get him out."
She said, after their return home, a local neurosurgeon said he had suffered a massive stroke and would never walk again. "I took him aside and asked him not to tell Eddie that. He was irresponsible and within a week he had changed his diagnosis.
"Now Eddie's walking without a stick. He's getting better all the time and the left arm is working. His index finger and middle fingers are very tight, but he can move his little finger and ring finger.
"There's nothing wrong with Eddie's cricketing brain. He sits in front of the TV and picks up absolutely everything and I'm amazed," she said.
One man who has shared the anguish of the Barlows is former Western Province top order batsman, Hylton Ackerman, who now runs the UCB's cricket academy: "Eddie's my best friend and to see him in a wheelchair was so sad. I burst into tears every time. He's the strongest guy, the nicest guy and the hardest bugger I've ever met ... and also the best all-rounder I ever played with."