It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved Bettie Meiring, who peacefully left this world on February 21, 2025, in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.
Bettie was born on July 14, 1936, to Frank and Grieta Vivier. She grew up in a loving family and went on to marry the love of her life, Kobus Meiring, in 1959. Together, they raised three wonderful children, Marelize, Louise, and Kobus.
In Loving Memory of Bettie
In the shadow of Table Mountain, where the Cape winds whisper farewell, Bettie—beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and aunt—slipped from this world suddenly, leaving behind a tapestry of a life richly lived. She was a woman of contrasts, a rose with thorns, whose kindness could soothe and whose words could cut, demanding a stout heart from those who knew her. Yet beneath her prim exterior beat a spirit fierce and tender, adored by all, none more so than her husband of 65 years, Kobus, who called her Liesbet with a love that time could not erode.
For six decades and more, they wove a bond unyielding—Kobus her steadfast rock, she his sharp-tongued muse. Bettie was petty in her pleasures, forever chiding him to scatter more nuts upon the snack tray, yet grand in her affections. She raised two daughters and a son with a mother’s pride, and her voice brimmed with tales of her grandchildren’s triumphs, each story a thread in the fabric of her joy. Saturdays found her at the salon, her hair a crown of care, a ritual of grace in a life both proper and profound.
To sit with Bettie and Kobus was to taste life’s simple sweetness—coffee and rusks in the morning light, their bedroom a haven of chatter and laughter. She could wound with a quip, yes, but oh, how she could love. Her passing leaves a quiet too vast to bear, a sudden hush in a home once alive with her presence. In Cape Town, where she took her final breath, the echoes of her wit and warmth linger still.
Bettie is survived by her devoted Kobus, her daughters and son, her cherished grandchildren, and a family who will forever carry her in their hearts. Liesbet, as he named her, has left us—yet her legacy, like the nuts she insisted upon, is scattered wide: a life of love, of sharpness softened by grace, now cradled in eternity.
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Guestbook
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Vir Kobus, in Stilte Die dae lê swaar soos skadu’s oor die berg, ’n stilte wat druis waar woorde eens gesing het; 65 jaar, ’n ewigheid in tyd geberg, ’n lewe saam, nou in jou hande stil gevang, Kobus, my vriend. Die Kaap se wind huil sag teen Tafel se rand, maar stiller is jou hart waar Bettie se stem verstil; 26 dae het jy gewaak, haar hand in jou hand, ’n pelgrim by ’n altaar, getrou tot die laaste wil. Sy lê nou ver, waar ICU se ligte kwyn, maar in jou stories leef sy, ’n tapyt van herinnering: die lag van jonk dae, die dans in aand se skyn, die pad wat kronkel deur jare se verowering. Vertel jy nog, Kobus, aan die wind wat luister stil, van liefde wat nie breek nie, al breek die tyd se baan? Jou stem, ’n baken, hou haar in die niet te wil, ’n lig wat gloei waar rou die siel kom slaan. Die see bly roep, soos altyd, uit die diep, en tog is dit jou hart wat dieper golf en breek; maar in die nag, waar sterre hul kerse kniep, sien jy haar oë blink, en weet: sy’s nie ver nie, nie bleek. Laat rus jou hand, wat hare so lank gevou, die 65 winters het ’n somer in julle geplant; Bettie se naam bly sing in die Kaapse klou, en jy, Kobus, bly staan—’n rots, haar ewige kant. in NP van Wyk Louw se styl, geskryf deur Grok.
Ernie J. planted a tree for Bettie.