When she arrived home, Lethabo and Tshepo were not there. It was a Saturday night and they went out for dinner as usual. They didn’t even notice that Nkamo was not in the house when they left, as always, they thought she locked herself in the room.
Nkamo wrote a letter that night in her room, she then went in the garage and took a rope. She went in the kitchen and tied up a rope on the roof. She put the letter on the table and then hung herself.
An hour later Lethabo and Tshepo came in and found Nkamo hanging in the kitchen with blood coming out of her mouth and ears. She was not breathing. They rushed her to the hospital but sadly it was already too late. The doctor informed them that Nkamo died together with her unborn baby.
Lethabo cried bitterly that night, questions were left unanswered between her and her husband. They didn’t know that Nkamo was dating and was pregnant, they also didn’t know that she was capable of committing suicide.
When they arrived home the next day they found the letter that Nkamo had written and put on the table. They opened it:
“Dear Mom. I’m sorry that I became a burden in your life. I wanted you to love me, to ask me about my life, about my dreams and future. But you never did that, you kept calling me ‘matlakala’ because I was rubbish to you and brainless like my useless father whom I don’t even know. I worked hard at school just to please you, but all that resulted to more insults from you. I don’t know why you hate me so much. What have I done to you to deserve this treatment? Don’t think I hate you, I will never hate you. I love you so much, mom. I did this because I wanted peace in my life, the peace that I had with Koko. Goodbye, mom.”
As soon as Lethabo read the message she felt like her heart was dragged out from her. She felt like someone was stopping her from breathing. She fainted and woke up minutes later. Tshepo was out of words, he was surprised. Nkamo’s phone kept ringing out loud, but no one could hear it. Their minds were still on the letter.
Minutes later, there was a sound in Nkamo’s phone, it was a message from Donald. Nkamo had stored Donald’s number as ‘My love’.
Lethabo and Tshepo looked at the phone and saw 57 missed calls from ‘My love’. They then read the message he sent:
My queen, please forgive me for speaking to you like that. I don’t know what got into my head. I love you and I accept the pregnancy. Please let’s meet and fix things. I love you. Please respond. If you don’t I will come your home. I don’t care whether your parents will see me. I never stopped loving you my queen.
Lethabo and Tshepo looked at each other and were shocked. They didn’t know what to do. Lethabo ended up sleeping because she never slept since the incident, she cried until tears couldn’t come out anymore.
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Tell us: Do you think Lethabo’s grief is real?