Aileen, 82, lives at Shottermill House in Haslemere and is now living with dementia. Born and raised in South Africa, she trained as a nurse and went on to live a life shaped by faith, music, and service – including caring for Nelson Mandela during his imprisonment
Born in 1944 in Cape Town, South Africa, Aileen was the third of seven children. The family home, on the slopes of Table Mountain, was always full of life, noise and adventure. “Our backyard was the mountain,” she recalls. “We could just walk straight out and explore.”
For Aileen, childhood meant freedom. She and her younger sister, Celia, spent hours exploring, building hideouts among the trees and getting into mischief. “We were the naughty ones,” she laughs. Despite a more difficult period later, when her parents divorced in 1968, those early memories remained deeply happy. “It was idyllic, really,” she says.
Faith was central to family life. Church shaped the rhythm of each week, and it was there that Aileen’s love of music began to flourish. Although she did not enjoy school, she quickly found her place at the piano
“I started playing the piano for Sunday school when I was eight and I’ve never really stopped.”
She also learned to play the organ by watching her sister. Before long, she was playing regularly in church services and singing in the choir. It was there that she first caught the attention of the man she would later marry.
“I was about 15,” she recalls. “Russell noticed me in the choir.”
Russell, her late husband, had been born in the UK. His family moved to South Africa after the war, when his father, Tom, a Royal Navy volunteer who became a Chief Petty Officer in the Submarine Service, decided to settle there. Originally stopping in Cape Town for three weeks while waiting for transport, he chose instead to remain and work with underprivileged communities.
In 1947, the family settled permanently, and Tom became a Methodist minister. He later served as chaplain to Robben Island, where he came to know Nelson Mandela, who was a church steward there. Aileen and Russell met properly on the church lawn in Rosebank Methodist Church, Cape Town, after one of Tom’s services. Not long afterwards, they began dating. Although Russell’s university commitments meant waiting several years before marrying, they remained devoted to one another and married in 1967. “We were married for 57 years and together for 64… We were a real team – absolutely solid.”
Before that chapter of her life began, Aileen trained as a nurse in the early 1960s, a time that left a lasting impression. During her training at Rondebosch Cottage Hospital, she cared for prisoners, among them Nelson Mandela.
“Nelson Mandela was an absolute gentleman… Very kind, very calm nature.”
He would often ask for Aileen to give him his injections. “He said they didn’t hurt when I did them,” she adds. They would sometimes talk, sharing small moments of conversation and even humour.
“I remember he asked me why I seemed different,” she says. “I told him it was because I was a Christian. And he said, ‘So am I.’” It was a brief encounter, but one she never forgot.
Another moment from her nursing years perhaps reveals even more about her character. While working at a hospital in Eshowe, she was called to a serious car accident where two men were badly injured, one white and one black. Under apartheid laws, they were not permitted to be transported together.
Aileen refused to leave one behind. “We’re taking both. This man will die if we don’t,” she’d said. Despite warnings that she could get into trouble, she insisted and took responsibility afterwards. Both men survived. Aileen was reprimanded, but she remained resolute. “What else could I have done?” she says. “You can’t leave someone to die.”
Aileen devoted much of her time to church life, particularly working with children. One of her most significant contributions was helping to build and run a Sunday school that grew to more than 400 children in Newcastle, Natal in South Africa. In addition to training Sunday school teachers all over South Africa and Namibia, she trained choirs and put on big cantatas.
“There was always something to organise,” she says. “Teachers, lessons, everything.”
Music remained at the heart of it all. As well as leading choirs and organising performances, she herself continued playing regularly. “I’ve loved music since I was a child – and I still play music during devotions.”
One of her proudest achievements was producing Patience, a Gilbert and Sullivan opera. “I loved doing that,” she says. “It was a lot of work – but worth it.”
Later in life, Aileen and Russell moved to the UK in 2001 mainly because her children were in the UK and because Russell being born in the UK had always wanted to work here as a minister. They had placements in Chulmleigh in Devon and the Rutland circuit. Aileen trained as a local preacher and took services around the circuits. It was a new season, but one that carried the same sense of purpose. They retired to Whittington College which provided a Christian community and Aileen played the organ in the little chapel every Sunday.
Aileen moved into Shottermill House in November 2024 as Russell was struggling to care for her as her dementia took hold and he was in and out of hospital. After his second stroke, they both needed care. Shottermill came about like many blessings in their 40-year ministry, by the grace of God, and the family had hoped for both of them to be in Shottermill so they didn’t have to be apart. Unfortunately, in January 2025, Russell sadly passed away.
Reflecting on all she has experienced throughout her life, Aileen doesn’t dwell on accolades or recognition, but on something quieter and more enduring. “I’ve always tried to do what’s right”, she says. “That’s what matters.”