Tuesday, December 10, 2024
Local author, Helen Munday, began writing and composing songs on her guitar as a child in South Africa. Little did she realize at the time that years later she would be residing in the small town of Gatesville and authoring books.
She was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and later related in her book, “My Dream, America,” that growing up was a happy, loving, neighborly experience, but we were oblivious to the international indignation of South African’s policy of Apartheid. As a family, we feared the police interaction around us and, tragically, many hundreds of people died in violence.”
Munday would call South Africa home for 21 years. She reflects, “I was raised to speak English, Afrikaans, and Dutch, and I loved to learn and speak Zulu.”
Always hoping to come to America, she didn’t have the means to. Her dream was finally realized in 1977. In an interview with the Killeen Dailey Herald, she recalled, “I came to America with $1,600, a visa for three months, and a ticket for a year.”
She recalled travelling to New York, Canada, and Florida – not realizing how vast the United States was. Munday became a U.S. citizen in 1983.
After venturing across the United States, Munday made her way to Gatesville in 2011 as a Nursing Home Administrator of Hillside Nursing and Rehab and later the administrator of Rehabliving at the Meadows. “I was a Nursing Home Administrator for 40 years. I was a registered nurse (RN) and midwife in South Africa,” she said.
Her literary career started near the end of 2007. Her father’s memoirs inspired her to write. “I had asked my dad permission to write his World War II memoirs, which he had written and sent to me from England. He gave me written consent, and it took me a year and a half to publish his story, ‘The War has Ended, but the Memory Lingers On.’” Munday said that the book is entirely nonfiction and covers a five-year span. “He was a Dutch secret agent. His story of unremitting toil to overtake an unrelenting enemy is stirring, inspiring, and unforgettable. He received the Silver Cross from the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina,” she said.
Munday said that her second book, “My Dream, America,” is also a nonfiction book and relates the story of her journey to America. “It is a story of hope, strength, struggles, and tenacity about a young girl’s dream of coming to America. I fell in love with the United States of America and had no idea how vast and diverse this country was. I wanted to tell my story to give hope and dreams to anyone at any age. I had no preconceived idea what America was. To never give up,” she said.
Her third book, “The Best of Eve,” includes recipes from around the world and contains a short story about her mother as well.
“All of my books are nonfiction, but the book I am working on now is fiction – ‘The Perfect Farmer’s Wife,’” she said.
When asked about who her literary inspirations were, Munday replied, “I’ve had many literary inspirations, including Winston Churchill and, recently, Kristin Hannah and Charles Martin. Kristin Hannah writes fiction but does an amazing amount of research on all her books.”
Munday said that the last time she visited her birthland of South Africa was in 1990. “Near the end of 1993, I brought my mom, sister, brother-in-law, and two nieces (ages nine and eleven) to the USA. They were 13 years on the waiting list to become American citizens. Today, we are all United States citizens and we all love the USA,” she said.
In her autobiography, Munday reflects on her childhood in South Africa. She writes, “Sometimes, my heart cries for the life of South Africa, the sounds, the earth, the smells, the beauty, and my friends. Africa touches and buries deep in one’s heart and soul, and no one can take South Africa away from me. It remains etched in my heart.”
Munday’s books are sold at the gift shop at Coryell Museum, 1854 Mercantile, Gussied Up, and on Amazon.
