Angela had just sat an examination in chemistry and exam and she was excited about her performance, and she felt hopeful that she would have more time to care for her little sister, Jane and her mother. When she got home, she change into ordinary clothes, checked on Jane, who was in one of their neighbour’s care, before she decided to visit her mother at the hospital.

The hospital was about fifteen kilometres away from her home. She left home at quarter to three in the afternoon. The hospital was always opened for visitors from four o’clock until quarter to six in the evening. She didn’t want to miss a minute of the visiting hours that the hospital had allowed visitors to see patients, but when she got to the hospital she did not see her mother in the ward. She noticed that visitors sat by the bed-side of their ill relatives and friends were whispering to themselves. Angela became so confused for a few minutes before she decided to ask one of the nurses at the reception.

“Please, Sister! Can I ask? I am looking for my mother. She was in bed number three,” She asked with a small and scared voice.

“Oh, are you talking about Mrs Vuma?”

“Yes, Ma’am!” Angela answered.

“Please wait for Sister Joyce to help you. Oh, that’s her,” the nurse answered her as a tall and well-built lady walked towards them.

“Sister. Here is Mrs Vuma’s daughter – she has been waiting for you,” the nurses introduce Angela to a nurse on duty.

“Oh okay, you can follow me to my office,” she told Angela. At that instant Angela began to have negative thought

“I’m Sister Joyce. And you?”

“I’m Angela, the daughter of Mrs. Vuma,” Angela replied. She was dying to hear why they called her separate.

“Do you have any relative member who is older that I can talk to?” Sister Joyce asked

“I cannot think of any at the moment, it is just me, my little sister and mother, ma’am,” Angela replied.

“Well, Angie. You know that the condition of your mother is serious,” Angela was nodding her head to every word while Sister Joyce explained the situation to her, “I am sorry to tell you that your mother has also been diagnosed with pneumonia. A respiratory tract infection that effects the lung tissue.”

“How?” Can I see her?” Angela was confused.

“She will soon recover from it,” Sister Joyce.

“Can I see her?” Angela asked again.

“You will soon see her; you just cannot see her now,” sister Joyce replied warmly.

“Why?”

“She isn’t physically and mentally capable of having any visitor at the moment. Moreover, pneumonia is contagious. It can spread through contact and air. Therefore, your mother is on Isolation Precaution at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).”

Angela’s mother died two days later. She died of Hospital Acquired Pneumonia. After two days when Angela had overcome the shock, she called and informed Joe of her mother’s death.

“Oh!” Joe exclaimed, “It is a terrible shock. I am so sorry that you are going through this. I am lost for words. I don’t really know what I can say in order to make it better. No words really could. But know that I am always with you.”

Her funeral was performed by the community because there was nobody in the family who could take the responsibility for the funeral. Joe didn’t attend the funeral, but he managed to send money to Angela. Things went well and Angela’s mother was buried the next Saturday.

Angela struggled to cope with life after the funeral because she had to fill in for her mother. She became responsible for her little sister Jane and the management of the home. Jane was just seven years old then and she was in grade two when their mother died. Both Angela and her sister received Poverty-Linked-Social-Grant from the government when their mother died with the help of Mrs Smith, who was their next-door neighbour and who worked for the Department of Basic Education. Therefore, they were able to continue their education.

Angela had about two weeks to finish sitting the second term examination when Joe returned home from UNISA in early June and his uncle told him about the death of his father. The news unsettled him to the extent that he never let Angela know he had returned nor answered her calls. And it was when he had left Magweni for Pretoria in late July that Angela met Juliet at the super-market who told her that Joe had been home since June and had just left for school the day before.

Tell us: Do you think Joe made the right decision not to tell Angela?