Bassie by Basetsana Kumalo

Author:Basetsana Kumalo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Published: 2019-09-15T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY

FAITH

In around 2007, we built our dream house in the country. We had moved out of the Northcliff house, where we’d had a couple of worrying security incidents and some unwelcome visitors stopping by to take pictures. While the new house was under construction, Romeo put us up in a secure townhouse in Bryanston.

We had decided to go and live out in the sticks in order to be out of the public eye and off the beaten track. We chose a beautiful, secure equestrian estate surrounded by fields and horses, bought a plot and set about building our family home. Building this home was such a special experience for us. Suzette Hammer, whom I had met through Top Billing and who did our Northcliff house, also worked on this house with us. It’s a real privilege to create a space that is your haven, your sanctuary, where your peace lies. And to put a plug where you want it!

We had some more happy news in 2007: I was pregnant. Better yet, this time it was twins, a boy and a girl. It seemed like I was going to have my childhood dream of a big house full of children after all.

Romeo was still working in Tanzania at the time and spent a weekend at home every four weeks. In December, he came home for an extended period over the Christmas holidays. I woke up one morning not feeling great. I was halfway through the pregnancy. Romeo took me to the doctor, who said there was nothing to worry about. I should take it easy, put my feet up, and not worry. The following day, I woke up soaking wet. Romeo took me back to the doctor, who immediately admitted me to hospital. It turned out my amniotic sac had ruptured.

Now it was just mayhem. Drips, injections – it was absolute chaos in that ward. They tried everything, but I went into labour. The babies were just twenty weeks old. I could feel their every move, their gentle flutters and the Braxton Hicks contractions. They were such an intimate part of me for twenty weeks, but they didn’t survive. The doctors put me in a labour ward. At one point I started to lose consciousness, and they told Romeo that we had to make a decision. The doctors gave me the option of a general anaesthetic and a Caesarean, but I said no, I wasn’t going home with a scar and no babies. I chose to go into labour and give birth to them, even though I knew I was not going to be able to take them home with me.

My sister Lerato had gone to our home to fetch my Bible and my father’s crucifix, which was the one thing I asked to keep when his belongings were being distributed after his passing. When she came back, I told her to read me my father’s psalms. They put his cross around my neck and they read me Psalm 23 and Psalm 91.

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