Christine du Plessis – A Life Lived in Service and Song

Meeting Christine du Plessis is like coming into contact with an energetic, lively whirlwind. This is a lady who, despite her share of difficulties in life, has accomplished great things, and at 83, continues to be active and to serve.

Her Road to Becoming an Opera Singer

As a young girl of 12, she began singing. Simply listening to the birds was her initial source of inspiration. This little girl had a long journey of music ahead of her. Talented at school, both in visual art as well as in music, Christine was encouraged to set her sights on Vienna. She was told she had it in her to become an opera singer. All the way through school in Bloemfontein, she studied and progressed, and achieved. She took part in Eisteddfods, receiving many honours.

When she finished school, she went off to Rhodes University in Grahamstown, to study a BA in fine art, and then started her career as a high school art teacher. The dream of studying singing in Vienna was by no means lost, but she needed money to get there. And so she taught in the high school in the mornings, and got an extra job – teaching at the Technicon in the afternoons and evenings. She did everything she could to earn the extra money she needed, including being involved in building ten floats for the Sand River Convention celebration in Bloemfontein in 1952. Her creativity was especially tested when a huge bronze coloured statue of a Free State farmer that she had made, fell and broke on the morning of the parade. Quick thinking, she went round to the local gym, and called upon a well-muscled, good-looking young man to be the bronze-painted substitute on her float.

Sister du Plessis considers the age of 23 to have been the peak of her achievements. She worked hard at her jobs, as well as preparing seven paintings for her first exhibition (all of which achieved A’s) and seven pieces to sing in the eisteddfod (all of which achieved A’s). She succeeded in selling her paintings, and this added sufficiently to her income, to enable her to finally realise her dream – she sailed over to Europe, to Vienna. And there she was to remain for two years, while she studied opera singing.

A Young Opera Singer in Vienna Meets the Missionaries

 

In Vienna, life was not easy just 10 years after the end of World War Two. And neither were her studies. She discovered that she had to “unlearn” everything that she had been taught as a singer, and “relearn” a whole new way of singing. At the same time, she was far from home and her home language of Afrikaans. While there she met up with a group of other young students from South Africa, amongst them – Mimi Coertse.

After being there for some time, the young Christine met with two young missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They had already tracted through her building, and didn’t usually go back to a place after finding no success. But on this occasion, they felt impressed to return to Christine’s apartment. Something that had always bothered Christine while growing up, was the idea that God was not fair, in that He gave prophets to the Old Testament people, but He didn’t care enough about us to do the same now. So when the missionaries told her about the Restoration of the fullness of the Gospel, together with a prophet to lead us, she knew she had finally found the truth.

She was baptized in the Danube River on 10 October 1955 at 6pm. It was icy cold and sleeting and they needed the headlights of the car to see. However, the Gospel was then already what it would be throughout her life ahead – “a live, burning thing in her system”.

Unfortunately, her life wasn’t to get any easier after this for her in Vienna. Her South African friends turned their backs on her after she joined the Church. And then finally, her father passed away before she was able to return and see him. In a state of despair, when she had heard the news about her father, she turned to Heavenly Father, and discovered for herself the comfort that comes from the Holy Ghost, and she received inspiration, which she felt was a blessing to her through the 30 years ahead.

Life as a Wife and a Mother

Finally, at the age of 27, Christine returned to South Africa, and to her old teaching job in Bloemfontein. But, after six months, she moved up to Pretoria. The Church was still quite small in the area, and she felt she had a better chance of meeting people her own age if she moved. In Pretoria, she found herself in much the same position, but she nonetheless met the man she was to marry. He was not a member of the Church at the time, but he investigated for himself and was baptized before they were married when Christine was 29.

Then came the real roller coaster ride of motherhood. She had her first son at 30, and her fourth son at 34. She spent nine years washing nappies by hand, while dealing with four lively, active and mischievous boys. Money was always a problem. Her husband had received some brain damage before they were married as a result of sporting accidents, and was epileptic. This resulted in him earning a lot less than they needed, despite him being an intelligent man.

When her youngest child started school, Christine went back to teaching. This time she taught at a special school for handicapped children where she stayed for five years. Then she was invited to teach singing at the Pretoria Technicon – and there she stayed until her retirement in 1988.

Re-Translating the Book of Mormon into Afrikaans

About eight years ago, she heard that a new Afrikaans translation of the Book of Mormon was to be done, and she decided that she wanted to be involved. So she put her name forward, and she was selected to work on the project with a few others. This was a long, but rewarding process, taking about five years.

A Missionary

With the Gospel being so central to her life, Christine found that she couldn’t keep her mouth closed about this precious gift, and this has resulted in numerous people joining the Church. All she has needed to do was live the Gospel, and do the most natural thing in the world – answer the questions people asked. At least 15 of her singing students joined the Church. When her family moved to Wolmaransstad, she was able to share this precious a part of her life with at least 20 people, to the extent that the mission started sending missionaries down monthly, and finally opened a branch in Klerksdorp, about an hour away.

A Sense of Humour

Humour has always been a big part of her and her sons’ lives. Those mischievous little boys, became mischievous big boys, and Christine needed a good sense of humour dealing with them when they did things like switching the organ on and off during sacrament meeting.

She feels that “the Lord has a sense of humour. He put us behind our faces, not in front of them – so we can’t see them.” Whether it’s her sense of humour, or just the goodness of the Lord in her obedient, service-filled life, the face that Sister Christine du Plessis has been blessed with is a wonderful one, which nobody would believe is 83. She still exercises regularly, runs her large house, which she has turned into a boarding house, cares for her own cats and all the local strays.

Over the years, she has been able to keep up her singing, in giving concerts, as well as singing at Church, and the talents with which the lord has blessed her have been well-used to bring joy to others. Her greatest joy now is seeing her fine sons, with their wives and children – all active in the Church. Her sacrifices over the years have been richly rewarded.