More on Santa, an iconic SA Litvak

ANT KATZ

Another Jewish Report user, Jeanette Airey, shared some of her own memories and pictures for readers.

Santa Pelham – a legend in her time, who gained world-wide acclaim with her commissioned memoir “Santa’s Story” and its one-woman dramatic adaptation performed by her diva daughter Aviva Pelham (Sulcas) – passed away in Cape Town on the last day of Chanukah at the age of 97.

RIGHT: Jeanette and Santa taken at the Theatre on the Bay on Saturday February 14, 2015

“What an amazing lady she was,” Jeanette told SAJR. “When she stood up from the front row of the theatre with Aviva and sang, one could hear a pin drop.”

Except, adds Jeanette, for “a few stifled tears as the emotion swelled.

“How amazing at her age! We had such a lovely chat together,” adds Jeanette.

LEFT: Jeanette Airey also submitted this picture she had taken at the same event, of Santa, Aviva and her sister. It was the second last performance

Jeanette says she couldn’t help thinking throughout the show of her own paternal Litvak grandfather and how he, too, had “fled from Lithuania (Latvia), landing up in Cape Town and going to Johannesburg and marrying my grandmother.

“My own mother died a few years ago at nearly 96 years of age, and also full of life and vigour except her last year after she had a stroke,” said Jeanette.

Read the December article: Santa Pelham