I met Roela at at a Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA) conference earlier in the year (2016) in Durban. She is one of those amazing people that you just like the minute you meet her. After a long day of conferencing, there was a gap before the evening's plans were to commence; I had a meeting close to where she and her colleagues were staying, so we walked together and got chatting.
I had not anticipated that the distance between the conference venue and the meeting place would feel like a half a marathon in my incredibly unpractical high heals; Roela being so finely in tune with those around her kindly brought me a pair of her shoes to the function later that evening, who does that? What an incredibly wonderful gesture. Maya Angelou's famous quote springs to mind,"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." I don't think I'll easily forget what Roela did for me or how she made me feel.
During the December holiday I finally got a chance to read Roela's "Kamee". Her first book, a book of short stories. I absolutely love well written Afrikaans books. Roela has a magical way of working with words, describing a scenario and adding incredible detail. The stories make you think, some let you make your own conclusions. I don't really get too emotional when reading, however there was one specific one that did actually bring a tear to my eye.
Roela's "cameo"is incredible! Really looking forward to reading many more of her books!
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