Sharon Sorour-Morris - Something on My Mind: Kate Jowell: A Battle with Alzheimers

For Kate

To the impressive, dynamic duo at Oshun Books, Marlene Fryer and Ronel Richter-Herbert, for believing in this book and making it possible.

To my editor, Lynda Gilfillan, for her intelligent, incisive editing, encouragement, inspiration and friendship, all of which were invaluable.

To my husband Michael, for always being willing to read the next instalment no matter the hour, and for being gracious in his commentary, and my children, Kate Ella and Jack, for their never-ending love and hugs.

To my parents, especially my mother, who passed away while the manuscript was in its infancy, for trusting I would get past Chapter 4!

To John Linnegar, for his keen interest, support and excellent editing of the dreaded endnotes.

To Paul Bowman, Lindy Smit and Patricia Swanepoel, for their very valued contribution.

To Eunice Mzondi, for her friendship, endless cups of tea and the best rusks in Cape Town. Enkosi kakhulu.

To Jane Raphaely, for introducing me to Kate and to Neil.

To the three wise men, Albie Sachs, Mike Page and Naas Steenkamp, for their forewords, interest and involvement.

To Neil, Justine and Nicola Jowell, for generously and warmly giving me access to their lives at a very painful time and for sharing Kates story.

Last but not least, to Kate, for taking me on this extraordinary journey. My heartfelt thanks.

Sharon Sorour-Morris

L UCKY IS THE person whose life story is told with grace, empathy and engaged intelligence. Unlucky is the person whose vitality is dimmed by Alzheimers disease. This is a story of luck and un-luck. I read it with fascination. It brought back moments of a period when the movement I belonged to was being crushed, and yet I was able to snatch quiet hours of personal happiness with a bright and loving companion, Kathy Bowman, not long after to become Kate Jowell.

It reminded me of the particularity of Cape Town in the 1960s, a vivid physical setting of intense personal endeavour. Above all it memorialised a personality to whom I had been close, very close, and from whom I was to be twice separated, first by the divergence of our life itineraries, and then by her illness.

This is an intimate story of love, achievement, family and loss, a memoir without memory, reconstructed by a kind and highly literate stranger out of shards of affectionate and loving recollection. Kate appears and disappears as a protagonist herself, a living ghost that occasionally walks the ramparts of her past.

At a time when women were expected unconsciously to subordinate their minds and imaginations to those of men, Kate was vivaciously, triumphantly and overtly self-determined. Yet, the person who so successfully claimed her autonomy is now totally dependent. Her own mind that she knew so well and that was so attractive now eludes her. It is painful to feel that the ever-questing butterfly with darkly gilded wings has ineluctably retromorphosed into her cocoon, absent yet present at the same time.

Miraculously, the story-telling by Sharon Sorour-Morris has reconfigured her into a vital person again. What started off as a tale intended to memorialise her for close family and friends has transfigured itself through authorial charm into a richly textured and widely interesting literary portrait of one of Cape Towns most signal personalities.

So many brave women have by now shattered invisible but powerful barriers to their advance, that there is something dated about invoking the first woman to syndrome. Yet Kate truly deserves to be honoured as having been the first woman to She was the first woman to head the intensely masculine domain of the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town. Viva Kate, viva! And the Business School itself becomes a major protagonist in this highly readable book.

Dedication and decency do not always lead to public success. In Kates case, however, they did, and she used her social position and embracing feminism to make a special and distinctive contribution to the development of pragmatic social consciousness in the business community. Though, as far as I know, she never became directly involved in the underground movement against apartheid, she gave what she had to give where she was best able to give it. This was her capacity through unrelenting tactful persuasion to prepare people in her privileged circles, not only to accommodate change, but to welcome it.

The shared natural feminism of Kate Jowell and Sharon Sorour-Morris runs as a strong current right through this happy/sad tale.

For me, at least, it left a warm and poignant afterglow.

Albie Sachs

Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa

August 2009

K ATE CONTINUES TO have a deep impact on my life and career. As role model, mentor and friend she displayed the character, integrity, tenacity and quiet warmth that I have always hoped to emulate. Thank you, Kate! Yours has not been a linear and narrowly focused path from student to academic, but a life journey, one that makes you unique in the best sense of the word and you remain the most elegant person I have known.

I first met Kate when I was studying for a part-time MBA at the University of Cape Towns Graduate School of Business. Kate was on sabbatical and scheduled to teach the Industrial Relations course after the December break. Her year-long absence in no way dampened her reputation for not suffering the ill-prepared gladly. Consequently, during the break my focus was on preparing for her course, one which fully met every expectation! To me, her teaching style was superb there was no room to hide and yet she still created an amazing and supportive learning environment. Her quick mind, wealth of experience and ability to connect classroom theory to the industrial relations challenges facing South Africa shone through.

Later, after I joined the staff and came to know her better, I was struck by Kates generosity and quiet sense of humour. She was always willing to share her expert knowledge, general life experience and insight as an accomplished educator. This she did quite often at the Kings Kitchen across the road from the old Business School campus a diner we frequented for lunchtime toasted sandwiches and, much to her amusement, to overindulge in chocolate milkshakes, into which we asked the elderly church ladies who ran the place to deposit not one, but two, marshmallows.

When Kate became director of the Graduate School of Business, I worked very closely with her. We had many long brainstorming sessions to seek ways to generate the funds needed to pare down the schools debt. As always, Kate did not shirk from the huge challenge. She worked longer and harder than anybody, and never spoke badly of others, including a university administration that seemed increasingly and inappropriately to hold her accountable without providing the necessary support, particularly given its own culpability.

Some time into her term as director, with a sense of disbelief and uncertainty, I realised that all was not well with Kate. There were small clues long before the final diagnosis, but Kate showed enormous courage and was even more dedicated and hard-working in an attempt to overcome the creeping onslaught of her disease.

Knowing Kate for so many years as a vibrant, intelligent woman makes it so much sadder to see the toll that Alzheimers is taking on a once brilliant mind. Reading this book reminded me once again of Kates enormous successes and her impact on so many. I feel very blessed to have benefited significantly from her generous spirit. My debt of gratitude is because of her profound influence not only on my professional growth, but on the totality of my life and how she continues to challenge me to better serve others.