THE GREENMONSTERS: September 2007

Our family is finally home safe and sound after a wonderful 6 weeks in South Africa. We arrived home last Monday at about 2:30am after a long flight and what seemed an even longer drive home! I kinda messed up and thought Ethan started school on the Monday so I got everyone up at 7am only to realize thanks to Laura that Ethan's school days were Tuesday/Friday! I knew that but I guess in this instance I can blame jet lag, time difference, and vacation brains for the error! Anyways the children took a nap at 2:30pm and of course Peter and I lay down too(Pete had to go to work at midnight!). Well 7am the next morning Chloe and Ethan finally stirred. Yip that's right they slept approx. 16 hours straight! Anyways I still have plenty pictures and adventures to record from our trip...I haven't had the opportunity to sit down and do it yet but I will.

Now here comes the not so great part about this posting. When we left SA I was excited to find out that we were on the same flight as one of my bestest high school friends Lyndy and her fiance Jason. We didn't really chat during the flight as they don't have children so they slept. We had dinner together before the flight in Jo'burg and when we arrived in Paris we went out for a hot chocolate. It was so nice to catch up with Lyn's and it seemed like only days had gone by since I last saw her even though it has been 8 years!

Well once home I emailed her to say Hi and to find out how the last leg of her flight from Paris to Birmingham went. Their flight was great but unfortunately Jason's family had a crisis in SA and so he basically had to go back home again. Below is an account of what happened to his mother. This may be shocking to some of you, but to most South Africans this is a daily occurrence. While I was home a young mother of 28 was stabbed to death in front of her 2 month old baby. The neighbors called the police because they could hear the baby crying. This was about a 7 minute drive from my parents home. Here is J's moms account of that day:

18 September 2007

I had a busy Tuesday planned and was getting ready to leave my home early in the morning. Jackie, our Jack Russel was barking away as she does when we have visitors. I looked up the staircase and as I did not see anyone there, to my regret, I ignored her warning.

I set the alarm and left the house. As I just locked the door, I remembered a file I had left behind and went back in to get it. I had opened my office door (which is why I had my house keys in my hand). I then set out to leave again. I locked the office door and in the short passage to the front door, I was suddenly confronted by a black man. It was just so unexpected. I think I screamed and I thought he was trying to cover my mouth, but he had actually stabbed me. I realized no one would hear and I realized I was in big trouble. He asked for my bag and I gave it to him and became very docile. He then grabbed me by the arm and led me to the lounge where he instructed me to hand him the money from my wallet and the cell phone. I saw the knife, a silver, all-in-one carving knife in his hand and noticed how much blood was on it. “that’s a lot of blood” I thought and realized I was in trouble. At this stage there was no pain. He then took my one ring off and then my watch. As he took each item he carefully put it into pockets in his pants that had several zips and closed each zip purposefully. No need to hurry. When he asked for my wedding/engagement ring, I just couldn’t give it to him. It has so much meaning to me. By this stage my head was bowed and I looked down. I mumbled something about my daddy dying and that my ring was all I had to remember him. For some reason he lost interest in the ring and started feeling all over my body. It appeared that he was looking for hidden money. Then he sifted through every pocket in my handbag.

He asked me for my ATM card and the pin number. I wrote down a pin number that I use on a regular basis, but not the pin number of the card. It was a number I could have repeated later if that was part of his process. At this stage I hoped he would leave as he now had money and jewelry. He swore at me all along and asked for gold. It was very hard to understand him as he spoke very broken English. I just said, “I don’t understand.” So he hauled me up and “come, come” and led me to the bedrooms. I felt that things could only get worse now. He was calm and looked like he was in for the long haul. I started to realize that I could get raped and killed slowly and no one would even know. I had little strength to fight him off.

I still had my keys in my hand so I unlocked the office door. I told him – “this is the office” and he seemed keen to go in there. I moved directly to my chair and started opening drawers. He picked up a folder and started going through the contents. I noticed he was not looking at me and I pressed the panic button. I knew I was taking a risk and that he could attack me again, but the desk was between us and I thought I could use my chair as a shield. He chose to flee.

I hurried to the office door and locked it and waited for the armed response call. I knew it was silly to tie up the line by trying to phone but I cannot tell you how long that wait seemed. Blue phoned and then everything unfolded with the professionalism that anyone could want from the support systems. The operator kept me on the line even though I felt like fainting. I managed to unlock the office door when I heard the house siren over the operator’s phone. Then I collapsed. The Netcare paramedics were there just as quickly and before I realized it, I was on a stretcher and on the way to hospital.

MY INJURIES

The knife went in under my left arm, damaged the lung, cut the spleen and made a hole in my diaphragm. My intestines pushed up through this hole.

At hospital the knife wound was stitched up and I was sent to X-rays. This confirmed a collapsed lung so tubes were put into my chest to help re-establish the vacuum required for lungs to work. These tubes are attached to a bottle of water so that air can go out but not back in.

I continued to complain about a dull ache just under my diaphragm. I was sent for a CAT scan which confirmed the further damage. I was rushed to surgery.

In my first 24 hours I had a nurse in my room all the time. I had a surgical cut from my breast bone to under my belly button, tubes out of my chest, a catheter, monitors, a drip and I basically lay dead still, half sitting for that time. I could talk, but was pretty much in shock.

The next few days saw me get better and slowly reawaken bits of me, one at a time.

By Sunday, the doctors deemed me well enough to go home. I could walk and eat. My lungs had regained most of the capacity lost. The healing of the body and heart now has to happen with those who love me.

OTHER FAMILY RELATED ATTACKS THE SAME WEEK.

The same Tuesday evening my niece had three black youths walk into their lounge and threatened them at knife point (in Pinetown). At home were my niece, her husband, their baby and his parents. They managed to make enough noise so that someone in the house set off the panic button.

On Tuesday evening my nephew had his car broken into and their radio stolen. The car was parked in their yard.

On Friday my daughter-in-law had an attempted smash-and-grab/hijacking at the Mount Edgecombe robots at the N2. Luckily they had protection on the windows but he smashed repeatedly and got his hand through. It was just my daughter-in-law and my grand daughter in the car. Luckily she held her head and just drove off dragging the attacked along until he let go.

SO

This experience was NOT OK. I think the least I can ask for is a safe home and environment in which to live. What’s to be done next will have to wait for me to feel stronger.

But I come out of this experience with my faith in human kind, not just restored, but enlarged. The stories of support and well wishes will take many more pages to fill than the report of the attack. To everyone for your thoughts and prayers, thank you.