Good Morning, Mr. Mandela by Zelda la Grange

Author:Zelda la Grange
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2014-06-16T16:00:00+00:00

8

Working with World Leaders

Although Madiba appeared healthy and strong, he was not. In July 2001 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. One afternoon after having his lunch at home, he called me to his house and I could hear that there was seriousness in his voice. I had forgotten about the medical tests a few weeks earlier. I rushed over and found him in his usual comfy chair reading papers with his greeting smile as usual. He said: ‘Zeldina, sit down.’ Which I did. And then he said, ‘Now you know we’ve been for tests the last couple of weeks. I don’t want you to be alarmed but we have prostate cancer.’ The way he delivered the news made me want to laugh and cry, all at once. By now he knew me so well and knew that I would never say anything disrespecting him, but he also knew my sense of humour. I replied: ‘Khulu, oh no. I am so incredibly sorry to hear that but I am sure you are going to have the best treatment possible . . .’ He smiled and was appreciative, and then I said, ‘. . . but I have to tell you we cannot have prostate cancer.’ He laughed and then explained the treatment to follow. It was so considerate of him to share his condition with me before he went public with it, and it really showed me that he knew how much I cared for him.

He could never speak in singular terms or in the first person. He could never speak of ‘me’ or ‘I’. It was part of the humble man that he was and everything included everyone around him. It was also part of the collectiveness of the ANC which was imprinted upon him while incarcerated. He was determined that the cancer was merely a little stumbling block that we would overcome in no time. He instructed me to call a press conference where he and Dr Mike Plit, his physician, would explain the situation and treatment to follow. He always insisted on being extremely open about his health or any medical condition. The next day he started with radiotherapy which continued daily for six weeks. By the second or third week he was losing strength and I was extremely worried about him. I stopped going to the oncology centre with him and Mrs Machel, as it was hard for me to see. She was there every step of the way and they grounded themselves in Johannesburg to slow down the pace and give him time to recover from the treatment. He was OK but stressed from going to the clinic every day.

People prayed and sent good wishes daily. We were inundated with well wishers and that posed its own challenges. The heading of the daily newspaper in Johannesburg, The Star, read on 24 July 2001, MANDELA HAS CANCER. LOW GRADE PROSTATE MALIGNANCY SHOULDN’T SHORTEN LIFE SPAN, and it didn’t. I am convinced today that the butterfly effect had a lot to do with his healing.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.