Stephan's parents had left already, as Stoffel was a big sheep farmer up Calvinia way, that is in one the driest most barren places in South Africa. But it is also very beautiful, the different browns, ochres and yellows making for a visually pleasing experience, and I loved it!
I was alone at home with the baby Stephan, when the phone rang, and it was my son, Jan, and he was mumbling and crying, and so incoherent that I couldn't make out a word of what he said, so I told him to take a deep breath and then try again. A cold feeling had by now started to come over me, as I could hear something about Nina and an accident.
He took a deep breath, then told me that he was in George, and that a strange woman had just phoned him from Nina's phone to tell him that she had a terrible accident, and he should come immediately. He was in George for his work, and that meant that he was about one hundred and fifty kilometers from where the accident took place, apparently quite close to the house. As he was driving back already at this stage, I told him to just concentrate on the road, and I will phone Sammi, a friend of Nina, to go and have a look and phone me back, and I will then phone him. Sammi wanted to know why I did not go myself, and I realized that she didn't know I was still in Cape Town.
Sammi phoned me back, and said that she had phoned the police first to find out where the accident was, and they had told her that one of the drivers died, but they wouldn't tell her which one. She and Lauren, another friend then went to the accident scene, and it was quite some time later that she phoned me back to tell me that Nina did not make it, but the two kids were alive. I felt so weak, almost as if I was in a dream, just sitting there, asking, why.why,why!
I didn't know how to tell my son, with whom I just had a long talk, telling him that I was sure that Nina was okay. But in the meantime he had arrived at the accident scene, and he was in a state of panic and absolutely hysterical when he phoned to let me know that his wife was dead. The seven year old Andreas was found crawling around the verge covered in blood, calling for his Mummy. The five week old baby was found unhurt, sitting in his baby chair in the overturned small truck, and when Ronalee, my neigbour came, she took him, and cared for him. They waited for ages but the ambulance came only just before Jan got there, so Lauren went in the ambulance with Andreas, while Ronalee took the stricken Jan, who waited until Nina was taken away, to the hospital in George where Andreas was taken.
He had a broken arm, a broken leg, a cracked skull, and a piece from his eyebrow was smashed,
and would need some surgery.
How the accident happened nobody could say, as there was no other car involved., but the tragedy of this would only really stike us later, and brought the sometimes bizarre things that can happen home to us, as Nina had only gone for her Friday shopping, and to change her library books!