Born in Glasgow on 5th July 1904 to Louis and Leah Dorfman. Mae was the daughter in a family of seven children. Two elder brothers, Morris and Alec, and three younger brothers, George, Daniel (Danny) and Henry (the youngest) and one sister Celia who was about a year older than Henry.
Celia is now in her eighties and lives in Florida, USA. Henry lives in a home in Balornock, Glasgow.
The family moved to Edinburgh shortly after Mae was born where Louis Dorfman established a reputation as an antique restorer and antique dealer. He was a craftsman and his son Morris and grandson Max (son of Morris) followed in his footsteps. Max and his youngest son Rodney still run an antique business in Edinburgh, making it the fourth generation in the antique trade.
On 6 June 1925 Mae married Hyman Lincoln. They had one son Cecil who presently lives in Tennessee, USA. Mae and Hyman were divorced in February 1936. Cecil lived with Mae until he was seven and thereafter lived with his father.
In 1937 Louis and Leah Dorfman immigrated to South Africa. They acquired a hotel in a town, Calvinia, some 300 miles north west of Cape Town on an escarpment known as Hantam. The dry arid climate was what Louis needed as he suffered badly from asthma.
In 1938 Mae followed her parents to South Africa and assisted them in running the hotel. A young lawyer, Arnold Kapelus, born and bred in the area, boarded at the hotel. A relationship between Mae and Arnold soon developed and they were married in Calvinia on 26 December 1940.
Within months of their marriage the young couple moved some 86 miles south west to a smaller village, Van Rhynsdorp, where Arnold Kapelus established a law practice and his family home. Mae and Arnold Kapelus lived in Van Rhynsdorp from the beginning of 1941 until Arnold's demise in 1995, some 54 years.
Mae was born and bred in Scotland. In Van Rhynsdorp the folk spoke Afrikaans and very few people could converse in English. This in no way deterred Mae from taking part in the social and cultural life of the village. She became a stalwart of the Women's Agricultural Society, a committee member of the local Red Cross Society as well as a leading light in the affairs of the local South African Tuberculosis Association of which Arnold was president. Her cooking and baking were renown. Her hospitality legendary.
Mae and Arnold have two children; Ivan Kapelus married to Esther Kapelus and Yvonne Spektor, married to Ken. Both live in north London.
Mae is blessed with four grandchildren, Leora and Ilan Kapelus and Pippa and David Spektor, as well as a great grandchild, Suzanne Kapelus, the daughter of Ilan and Marcelle Kapelus.
Written by Ivan Kapelus April 2000
Mae, who has just recently celebrated her 98th birthday (!), lives in a home in North London where she is visited frequently by her family.
Her son, Cecil passed away in 2001.
