Indeed, my 93-year-old father has seven grandchildren, of whom only one is in the motherland.
Three live in England; one in America, one in Australia and one in Dubai. In other words, they inhabit four of the seven continents.
He is not alone; many South African parents and children live on different continents, although the trend to return is far stronger now than it was when we left 15 years ago.
But how easy is it to make it elsewhere?
I would suggest that if you can handle the emotional side – which is easily the toughest hurdle – it’s relatively simple to start a new life, but be prepared for some unforeseen consequences.
For example, two of my sisters and I emigrated at roughly the same time.
In South Africa, I was probably the most settled in my job and was possibly doing the best.
That’s certainly not the case anymore.
My one sister runs two businesses from home, while the other ended up managing a physiotherapy studio in London, before she and her husband got green cards to join their son, a successful businessman, in the States.
She now teaches kids swimming (she’s still a competitive endurance athlete, having previously won the Washie 100-miler in South Africa six times) and loves life with a passion.
On a recent trip to the States I visited her briefly in Nashville and had one of the best times I can remember.
They have a house near the magnificent Lake Hickory and my always cheerful brother-in-law has a boat which is far snazzier than my old skiboat that I used to hunt grunter in Richards Bay and St Lucia.
Sitting with them savouring a glass of Wild Turkey (when in America) on a warm spring evening seemed a million miles from Africa, but there we were, braaiing and swapping memories of great times on the mother continent.
My other sister lives 20km from us, and as I say, works like a Trojan despite the fact that she is past the official retirement year.
Wealth
None of us are what you would call affluent, and that is primarily because of the age we emigrated.
You cannot over-estimate the costs of upping sticks on the pathetically weak Rand in late middle age, mainly because you have to blow your pension upfront and thus can never really retire.
This is why I have two jobs; my day job as a digital editor, and also writing books to make ends meet.
If I spent as much time writing as I do fishing, I may be a little more successful, but hey … fishing is research, you understand.
I promise I do occasionally think about the books I’m working on while I’m at the lake.
However, Lady Luck smiled on me when I went for a job interview.
I decided to go into digital journalism because at the time the dot.com bubble, of which I had no understanding, was booming.
I think it burst the day I signed my employment contract, but even so, over the next 15 years I saw most of the print news editors with me get retrenched.
I survived because in the UK journalism is now primarily web-based.
For example, the newspaper I represent only has a weekly circulation of about 6 000.
I can beat that audience online in a couple of hours.
Our respective children have scattered even further.
The sister in England’s son is in Australia where he’s a top IT trouble shooter, while her daughter lives in London.
She was in company finance, but now is a full-time mother, something which I really admire her for doing.
It’s not easy to swap your ambitions for your priorities.
The American sister’s son is a partner in an international accounting firm, and her daughter, a highly-regarded nutritionist, is in Dubai and now also a full-time mom – echoing my sentiments on my other niece.
Finally, my two brats have astonished management and me by both passing their second year of university.
So yes, we are scatterlings.
But it’s been sort of okay.
