E mail to Michael Eliastam from one of Abdool's children. She gave permission to share this with the class. 

Dear Dr Eliastam

Thank you for your kind words. I am not sure how much contact remained between my father and yourself so I shall start the story there - after medical school at Wits, he stayed on to specialise in Internal Medicine, becoming a Fellow of the College of Physicians of South Africa in 1971. He then spent a few years in Canada in Toronto, where he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians as well as certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in 1977and the Subspeciality of Cardiovascular Disease in 1979. He then moved Ottawa where he joined a Cardiology practice. He got married to my mum, Amina, in 1974. Together they had 4 children (three daughters, Rabia, Nooren-Nisa - Noori, and Farah and then a son, 7 years after me, Mohamed.) In 1976, they relocated again to Ottawa and thereafter to Boston. They missed family and decided to return to South Africa in 1982 - just before I was born. At the time, he was the first non-white sub-specialist in Johannesburg. He was instrumental in negotiating for non-white patients to get Cardiology angiograms by creating a wing at the Coronation hospital for patients to sleep over and then be transferred on the morning of the angiogram to the Johannesburg general (white only) hospital, where he was allowed to perform their angiograms and then return to treating them at Coronation Hospital. With the help of good physician friends, he was allowed to begin private work at Milpark Hospital on non-white patients by using up a morning slot of a fellow white colleague who allocated time for my dad to practice there. We grew up in Houghton - a designated white suburb under Apartheid rule, but my parents quite happily, illegally lived in the area as they bought the house through a private sale not through an agency, and a friend was kind enough to allow the rates and other bills to remain in his name so that there would be no issue.  I think very fondly of those years now, because at the time I was not at all exposed to apartheid, we went to private schools, and lived in a neighbourhood where we encountered no problems or prejudice. Though it was illegal, my parents new that Apartheid was wrong, and so in their passive resistance they ensured that they could give us a life they felt our family deserved.

I mention Apartheid today because I recall him having a dinner conversation once about the WMS66 google group. He said someone had started a conversation about Apartheid and medical school - I know that during 2nd year dissection when a white cadaver was being dissected, my dad and others would have to leave. And the conversation was about those times, and some people expressing regret at not opposing it or speaking out about how wrong it was. My dad had said that day, “I didn’t contribute to the discussion, I didn’t think it was my place” - “but it was interesting reading everyone else’s thoughts and comments about it”.

As I mentioned before, we are four siblings. And we are all doctors - and none of us were forced to do it. They actually tried their hardest to discourage me! All of us are Wits graduates. My eldest sister, Rabia, and I, have both specialised in Ophthalmology. Rabia is currently in private practice at Park Lane Hospital in Johannesburg and a mum of 3 kids. My second sister, Noori, is a dermatologist. She is also in private practice at Laserderm in Johannesburg. She is a mum of 3 kids as well, which has been hard because her 3rd child, a daughter, was born at 31 weeks last August, and has bronchopulmonary dysplasia so is in and out of ICU with lung infections and when at home, is on home oxygen for the next couple of years. My brother, Mohamed, is currently in his second year of internship (it has now become 2 years of internship and 1 year of community service thereafter here), but he feels that he actually does not want to continue his career in the medical field so the future only knows what it holds for him once he completes his time. We all live in Johannesburg. I have just moved back from London where I was offered a retinal fellowship at Moorfield Eye Hospital but unfortunately had great difficulty getting registered with the UK General medical Council so was unable to begin, and felt it was time to come home - my husband and I had been in London for 8 months as he got an easy transfer with his work in management consulting at McKinsey & co, but we were getting nowhere with my registration and I felt the need to begin working again. So we have just returned to South Africa where I am hoping to being as a consultant Ophthalmologist in the public sector.

I began this email the day I received yours and for some reason has taken me this long to complete it. We are truly sorry to hear about your sister, only loss can understand another’s loss and I hope time eases the heartache. I did in fact receive your LinkedIn message and did reply but I am not sure that you received that.

Thank you for your kind words and I hope that you and the rest of the class, find yourselves in good health for years to come and enjoy the reunion next year.

Regards,
Farah