Gone too soon

It took hearing about a friend's mom passing away suddenly for me to remember again what it felt like hearing that the love of my life passed away in her sleep. My grandmother.

It all started when she was coming back from church. She used to love the 25 minute walk from the Methodist Church in Moletlane, Limpopo. On that particular day she was 'lucky' enough to get a lift from her neighbours son. She jumped out of the car and walked behind the car, and he without looking back started reversing his car. As the car bumped into her, she fell down and got her ankle trapped underneath one the tyres of his Navara.

With some of the bones in her ankle broken she was rushed to the nearest hospital to where she stays, this unfortunately happened to be the Lebowakgomo Public hospital. And so started the most harrowing three days of our lives.

To say the conditions and services at some of our countries public hospitals is horrible, is a gross understatement. We saw the most appaling conditions and got to experience first hand the abuse that patients and their families are subjected to at the hands of some of the nurses working in these facilities.

I still have difficulty recalling the last days of my grandmother's life, without tearing. My husband and I happened to have been there to visit her over the Easter weekend, not knowing what we were about to experience. We felt so helpless. The ordeal was ardous and all we kept thimking was how unfair it was that she wobbled into the hospital with a broken ankle, but was wheeled out of her ward in a body bag, and nobody ever got to answer for the basic neglect that we saw her undergo at the hands of some lazy, unaffected nurses at Lebowakgomo's public hospital.

My friends Mom died in her sleep, God bless her soul. She raised two beautiful children who made her very proud. This post is dedicated to her memory. I am so glad that she didn't spend her last days in a public facility where her basic needs would be neglected. she died with dignity. RIP Mme.

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