Born with a Caul

SANDRA’S BIRTH - BORN WITH A CAUL

When I was born in The Booth Maternity Hospital in Cape Town on 15th November 1949, a nurse hurried me away, and my Mother, Vera, never saw me for several hours.   She was frantic, weeping, worried sick and demanding to see her baby, when a doctor came to tell my mother some bad news. 

They believed I was ‘deformed’ in some way, as one half of my face was covered in skin - I had only one eye and half a mouth and half a nose.   When she saw me, she became hysterical (her word) and demanded her family doctor, a Dr. Rouch (sp? Pronounced ‘Rowk’) come to see me.

Clearly a calm and capable man, right in front of her, using a scalpel, he carefully peeled a ‘caul’ from my face, and underneath, said my Mom, was her perfect little baby girl.  She wept tears of joy, whilst my father Tom - a perfectionist - was extremely relieved their baby girl was perfect, so my Mother told me years later.

Research shows that in ancient times, people believed a baby born in the caul is blessed, lucky, would make a good sailor, and would never drown. Medieval mothers often sold the baby’s caul to sailors as a good-luck talisman.  Folk tales suggest a baby born in the caul can be psychic and destined to achieve great things. 

I survived a near drowning at Camps Bay in Cape Town when I was eleven years old, circa 1960, with my adopted ‘cousins’, Denise, Michael and Michele le Sueur, when we were swept into a whirlpool late one afternoon, a terrifying memory imprinted on my brain.   We were rescued by an off duty lifeguard and his wife walking on the beach and we made the front page of the Cape Argus the next day.

I am indeed blessed and very lucky.  I seldom get seasick, I can indeed be psychic, and I do believe I have achieved some great things in my life.  

Maybe the folk tales are true!