Elene Milne shared the tale of how Klaas, a cleaner at the Cape Town City Hall, found a lost phone and reunited it with its owner; this act went on to inspire a second act of kindness.
Cape Town, South Africa (22 March 2024) – Being a choir member of the Richard Cock Music Enterprises Winelands Choir, on the 16th and 17th March 2024 I was involved with an exceptional 2 “Last Night at the Proms” events at the Cape Town City Hall, organised by the Wynberg Rotarians. Richard Cock, our conductor, was unfortunately unable to conduct the choir and orchestra, and his wife, Sue, stood in for him at short notice.
Sue was just brilliant. There were 2 soloists, Rocco de Villiers, therefore the name of our concert, Roccover Beethoven, and Lonwabo Mose, a bass of note. In addition, the Cape Town Highlanders Pipe Band, joined the orchestra and the combined choirs for the rendition of “Highland Cathedral”.
On the first night of the concert friends of mine from Paarl attended. Seated on the Gallery, one of my friends took a pic of the stage and the choirs on her mobile phone and sent it to me. I only received it on returning home at 11pm that evening.
Shortly after arriving home, I received an unidentified phone call, and it was from Agnes – the call was made from a friend’s phone. Panic stations. She had lost her brand-new mobile phone at the City Hall. And we all know that one’s whole life is ‘on a mobile phone’, contacts, banking apps, other apps, social media, etc. Immediately after this call I contacted Emsie, our local Choirmaster, at midnight, and she directed me to one of our choir members who is involved in the organising of this event, also in the wee hours of the morning. He offered to contact the necessary people at the City Hall later that morning.
Sunday morning at 7 o’ clock, I got a phone call from Agnes’s phone, and I spoke with Klaas, a cleaner at the City Hall, mentioning excitingly that he had found the phone at her seat in row GG, on the Gallery. Immediately rejoicing. Klaas took the initiative to contact the most recent people Agnes was in contact with prior to the concert that evening. This put everything in motion and eventually Agnes was found, her phone was found, and they arranged to pick the phone up early on Sunday morning in Table View.
Having arrived at the appointed spot in Table View, Klaas was not there, but he had arranged for someone else to hand over the phone to Agnes, on his behalf. With a wad of cash, Agnes generously and with a thankful heart wanted to grace Klaas, but Klaas had told his friend that he did not need any reward, and his friend therefore declined Agnes’s gift.
Driving back to Paarl later that morning, Agnes made a quick stop at the Drakenstein Shopping Mall to buy some groceries. Standing at the traffic lights on the Wemmershoek Road, was a person (and his family) who had not eaten in days … and as an act of gratitude a generous number of groceries was handed to this gentleman in dire need.
Actually, Klaas is the centre of this story of goodwill. Thank you, Klaas, for your heart.
Saturday evening very late, while cleaning the City Hall, you found the mobile phone, kept it safely, contacted the necessary people early the following morning, and the mobile phone was returned to its owner.
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Klaas, your honesty and kind-heartedness allowed the blessing to have knock-on effects, and to be carried forth, onto another person, and another person, and another person …. We thank you for your exemplary example of honesty and goodness. To us, who are part of this blessing, you are anonymous, but maybe we will meet you one day. Thank you, Klaas.
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