Black and white photo of a fine line script lettering tattoo reading Familie na aan die hart along the ribs, with a hand and shirt at the edge of the frame.

Script phrase along the ribs

Fine line · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A black and white photograph of a single line of fine script lettering across the side of the ribs, with the words Familie na aan die hart. The linework is thin and even, with no shading, and the letters are slightly slanted with flowing joins. A hand rests on a loose grey top at the left of the frame, and the lettering runs diagonally across the centre of the image.

Fine line Lettering Ribs Script Lettering Phrase

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Piet,

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The post van came up the dirt road again this morning, and Mrs Venter at the farm gate waved the envelope at me as if it were a winning ticket. I know your handwriting by now. You still dot your i's as if you mean to puncture the paper. Your mother has kept the letters in the biscuit tin under the stairs, so I have put yours on top, where she will see it first.

You ask whether we are managing without you on the wall repairs. We are, barely. Jan fixed the windmill's gearbox with a bicycle chain and a prayer, and the goats have learned to lift the gate latch, which I suspect is your doing from years back. Ouma sits on the stoep every afternoon with the Bible open on her knee, though she has not turned a page since March. She asks for you by name when the light goes orange, then for Dad, then whether the kettle is on.

I went into town on Thursday to have the card framed for you, the one your niece made with the words copied out in her careful pencil. The man at the shop asked if it was a poem. I said no, it is only what we say when someone is far away and the supper table is too quiet. Family close to the heart. You will laugh that I took it so seriously, but I wanted it written somewhere you could not misplace it.

Come home at Christmas if the ship allows. Bring nothing but yourself. The spare room is made up, and I have left the lamp lit in the front window for the last bus, the way Pa used to.

Your loving Tannie Marietjie