Finding freedom in footsteps: Santie Barrish's transformative path from loss to lifelong learning

Daily Maverick

3 days ago

After tragedy struck following an early retirement, Santie Barrish decided to cultivate joy — and she found it beneath the soles of her feet.
For the past 13 years of her retirement, widow and former teacher Santie Barrish has lived with a mantra that has got her through whatever life has thrown at her: 'I will be happy and content, no matter my circumstances.'
At 73, Barrish says she's living her 'best possible life' in Mbombela, where she and her husband, Menzo, worked and raised their two daughters. But this wasn't always the case. Tragedy struck in December 2012, a mere two days before Barrish was due to retire from her post as the principal of Likhweti Primary School in Kanyamazane, a township just east of Mbombela.
'I remember seeing the Christmas lights going up in our local mall and feeling excited as I was about to retire at age 60 — earlier than planned because Menzo's health wasn't great and I wanted to have some adventures with him while there was time,' she says. 'We had saved up and booked a boat trip to Singapore, and this would be the first time in more than 30 years that I could go on holiday without thinking about the next school term.'
Then everything changed. Menzo passed away the morning before her last working day. Their trip was cancelled and that December went by in a blur of shock and grief. On a Monday morning in January 2013, Barrish found herself alone in bed, wondering if she should even bother to get up.
'It was the first day of the new school term and I remember thinking, what is there worth living for? I had no job and no husband. That's when I came up with my mantra,' says Barrish.
Having a mantra didn't mean she didn't have any fears — she just had to learn to keep them in check. Though Barrish had her pension and her home was paid off, she would need to live frugally to make it last, especially because she had retired a little earlier than planned.
'Every time these thoughts came up of will I ever travel again, what if I get lonely over weekends, what if my pension money can't keep up with inflation, I thought of my mantra and countered them with an action plan, revisiting all the passions I have.'
Her love for teaching led Barrish to get involved with the non-profit organisation Books in Homes, which produces affordable books and classroom aids to stimulate a love of reading among children.
Longest-lasting gift
'The gift of literacy is the longest-lasting gift one can bestow on a child,' says Barrish. 'The founder of Books in Homes, Val Morris, became my new travelling companion and we traversed the rural parts of Eswatini and Mpumalanga, bringing books in the children's own vernacular into many homes and schools.'
Importantly, she adds: 'Without even realising it, I had overcome my fear of never travelling again.'
Barrish's next volunteer adventure was stepping onto a small plane and flying into Mozambique with Mercy Air, a Christian NGO that provides aviation services for mission organisations in southern Africa. These trips became a regular event, and for the next several years she would promote literacy by training primary school teachers in isolated and poverty-stricken places such as Chimoio, Marromeu and Angoche, mostly using teaching aids the team had made themselves with simple materials.
It was a fulfilling and rewarding experience, and once again, it led to a door opening for Barrish that would influence her retired life profoundly.
'When you step out of your normal routine of living and working, your eyes suddenly open to new opportunities.
'One such discovery was that the Lowveld National Botanical Gardens offered free entry to people over 60 every Tuesday,' she says. 'This led to the forming of an impromptu walking club called Lekker Stap in 2018. Every week you'll still find us, a group just shy of 16 men and women, enjoying the famous Cascades waterfalls and gardens.'
Barrish's walking progressed from the botanical gardens to around the block she lives on three times a week. As she got fitter, she found the courage to join the Lowveld Rambling Club, swapping her sandals for hiking boots.
'I was no longer lonely over weekends as I spent my Saturdays climbing mountains and rambling through forests,' she says.
This would also lead to her new mode of travelling through countries, which she has kept up ever since: walking them.
'You are never too old to start walking and, using your own two feet, you can reach places no car can take you'
'You are never too old to start walking and, using your own two feet, you can reach places no car can take you,' says Barrish. 'One such place was Mount Sinai in Egypt, where I reflected on my life as I watched the sunrise from the summit. These words of Robert Browning haunted me on that mountain, 'As is your sort of mind, So is your sort of search: You will find what you desire.''
Her newfound confidence in hiking led her to many amazing adventures covering hundreds of kilometres on her own two feet — tropical beach walks in Mozambique and Mauritius, doing the Santiago de Camino pilgrimage in Spain, following in the footsteps of mountain goats across mainland Greece and walking the country's Peloponnese peninsula.
'To walk over a three-tiered bridge that was built 1,000 years ago gives you a new perspective on life,' says Barrish. 'I fell in love with the Greek isles — places like Evia and Tinos — and the locals' carefree way of living. A highlight was meeting an old shepherd on horseback who was saving his sheep from falling down a steep cliff at a waterfall. When I close my eyes, I can hear the ancient whistling language he used.'
In between the travelling, Barrish has had to deal with normal life and its demands at home. But it's another fear she's overcome.
'Life has its challenges,' she says. 'Burst water pipes, rising living costs and all that. But no matter what life throws at you, keep walking and write your own mantra.
'I believe in what philosopher Søren Kierkegaard said: 'I knew of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.'' DM