The Fudge Lady of Independence Avenue

Now and then Rachel Vryman (69) stops to lean against the walls of the Shoprite supermarket to rest, clutching the small, red ice-cream bucket full of fudge tightly in her hands.This is her bread and butter. And the supermarket is always busy, but sometimes her luck is low.“Sometimes I go home with only two pieces of fudge sold,” she says, adding they cost N$5 a piece.On a good day, she can make N$100.“If I make N$100, which is rare, I tell myself I've worked hard today. Some people support other youngsters only, and not an ouma.”She tries to laugh it off.She says she wishes she had a loud voice to shout: “Sister, come buy fudge!”She makes a buck or two and proceeds to Pick n Pay to buy maize meal for her grandchildren at home.“I wish I could buy rice and sugar too, and pay for electricity, but what I make is not enough. Instead, I buy one item at a time, but you always have to include bread,” she says. Vryman says she walks around with sadness in her heart after being retrenched after 17 years. She rests on a green bench in the sun at Post Street Mall, and tells her story: “I was working for German people, and they used to pay me N$300. Money was coming in very slowly, and I needed to pay for my kids' school and food.”In 2007, she acquired land and wanted to build a house on it, but her money could not take her that far, she says.“When they left for Germany they only gave me N$1 000, and I needed N$3 000.“All the money I worked for went to the house. I did not have anything left any more. It's like I wasn't working,” she says.Vryman remembers working for a German family after this, cleaning and ironing. “They paid me good money. One day I was ironing when my boss asked me if I had an eye problem. I later realised I did not iron both sleeves of one shirt. I have no idea how I missed that,” she says. The family never called her back. “I started making fudge because I am the only breadwinner at home. I take care of my two grandsons whose parents have passed on, my unemployed daughter with her young baby, and my son too,” she says.But being on your feet all day to sell fudge is exhausting.“I would be happy if I could just rest for two days. I am tired. I am 69, and standing every day is painful,” she says.Vryman, however, still believes nothing is impossible. She says you should never give up, because you never know when it's your day.