Travelling between the two continents came to an end when she started school at Rhenish Primary in Stellenbosch. Grandma’s house became home and mommy’s hand could only be held when it was summer time in South Africa. Being the daughter of a cricket player has its benefits and its challenges…
Omar Henry is renowned as the first player of colour to play for South Africa. He made his test debut for his country in 1992 at the age of 40. Henry married Karin King who become Conita Henry. Together they have three children of which Reyhana is the middle-child.
“People will call me the black sheep of my family just because I have my own way of doing things.” Maybe she just had middle-child syndrome? Whatever the case, Reyhana always had a mind of her own. Being seen as an individual is very important to her -“my one thing was to not conform… I am my own person and a lot of things that I do or say – there are people that might not agree with it.”
Rey, affectionately known as by friends, wanted to take a gap year after finishing high school. Unfortunately, her parents were not that trilled with the decision. Unlike her sister, who knew that she wanted to be a doctor since she was little, and is currently practicing medicine in Singapore, Reyhana was not that sure about what she wanted to become in life “I kinda did what I thought would be right, which was Sport Science” During her second year of studying, she was still not certain of her career choice. “I knew I was not a study, varsity person, I knew I love to play hockey, and I knew I loved to travel and that was all I knew at that stage” The following year, Reyhana got offered a job at Puma, left her studies and started to enter the working market. She stayed with Puma for about three years.
Between then and now, Reyhana took on various challenges and opportunities that came her way. She wanted to see the world and express her passion for travelling which ended in her becoming a flight attendant at Qatar Airways. A few weeks before Reyhana was set to embark on this adventure, life added a little surprise; she started to date the man of her dreams, who off course was left behind in South Africa. Reyhana’s flight attendant endeavor unfortunately only lasted for four months and she went back to Puma, where she worked for another two years.
Being passionate about life, with extreme diverse interests and talent, Rey emerged to the world of fashion. Reyhana joined The Platinum Group, which is comprised of labels like; Jenni Button, Hilton Winer, Urban, Aca Joe and Vertigo. She worked hard and climbed the corporate ladder with ease. The job was perfect as it entailed lots of traveling.
However, after being with the company for four years she realized that as perfect as the job was it was not very suitable for having a family. She then went to study teaching at UWC, “all my aunties and uncles on my dad’s side are teachers, I thought I would give it a try” But, the university environment was not her favourite place. This time she struggled to fit in, being older than most students, and for the second time dropped out of university. Platinum in the meantime gave her a promotion and she was back with them for another two years. After six years, in total with the Platinum Group, she found herself on the executive committee of the company.
With her courage to be different, she dared to live life from her heart and chose the road less travelled in terms of her career and other areas of life as you will find out in blogs to come. “It may not be the way that everybody else is accustomed to but it makes me happy…” Nevertheless, as the saying goes “Blood is thicker than water”.
Rheyhana married cricketer Rory Kleinveldt in the summer of 2013. Rory was capped for several teams including the Proteas, Cape Cobras and Northampton, his current English county cricket team.
Reyhana with Rory and Omar
“There is a particular memory that I have of Scotland…my mom, myself and my sister was sitting at this beautiful cricket ground on a picnic blanket, watching my dad play…I just always enjoyed that environment…For me, I always saw my life playout like that.” She went from being a cricketer’s daughter to a cricketing wife. Currently she is studying teaching through UNISA, a correspondence university, while travelling between continents, chasing summer…
Little Zara, at the age of seven weeks started the summer chase and a childhood memory is now being relived through the eyes of being a mother.
My coffee with Reyhana Kleinveldt was special. I realized once again that God placed us in a family. We get to bring our unique qualities and personality to the family table and be an individual. At the same time we get to share and enjoy opportunities, experiences, skills and so much more with and through our family.
We get to travel on roads made straight for us by others who went before use and at the same time we are loved and supported to venture on roads less traveled.
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