Linda was only 5 years old when her mother passed away from HIV, even though life wasn’t so good to them when her mom was around it got worse for little Linda after the passing of her mom.Immediately after the burial she had to move in with her uncle and his wife with their 4 year old son Brian.
Six months before MaThabethe (Linda’s mother )passed away her grandmother was the one to pass away first leaving her 4 roomed house to Linda’s mother since her son(Linda’s uncle) had a house already in Mpumalanga even though he hails from Free state where Linda, her mom and grandma are staying so the house was passed down to Linda but because she was only 5 she couldn’t stay in Free State alone.
Months went by and things only got worse and Linda’s aunt started mistreating her, giving her unbearable chores for her age just to make sure she doesn’t go out and play with other kids. When she turned 8 years she was already cooking,doing hers and Brian’s laundry.She was always occupied that she couldn’t even find time to do her homework, her aunt made it clear that if she fails to finish her daily chores in time then she won’t get any food that night so it was either doing her aunt’s chores or her home works then going to bed with am empty stomach.With everything happening to poor Linda no one in their community was aware of her living circumstances because she wasn’t allowed to interact with anyone otherwise she will get some hell of a hiding.
When she arrived in grade 9 her performance was so poor but she couldn’t talk to anyone about her situation, one evening she tried confronting her uncle as to why she was treated differently from Brian ,her uncle lashed out and pushed Linda that she heated her head against the wall behind her but the honest truth about her uncle’s reaction was that it bothered him as well seeing how bad his wife was treating his niece but because he wasn’t working and she was the bread winner he felt powerless, there was nothing he could do to protect Linda so him boiling with anger and pushing Linda was his way of hiding his true feelings about the situation .
Later that day Linda attempted to commit suicide because it was clear that no one wanted her in this house instead she was treated like some maid not a family member that she was so she drank a bunch of sleeping pills which belonged to her aunt but things didn’t go as planned instead they made her fall asleep and later give her a terrible running tummy, the incident knocked some senses into Linda’s head and she took a life changing decision which later completely transformed her life from rags to riches. With her grade 9 end of year report she decided to enroll at a technical college to study towards a diploma in hospitality, the diploma was going to take her 3 years so she decided it was time she sold her grandma’s 4 roomed house to fund for her studies and luckily everything went as she had planned, she even managed to move out of her uncle’s home and rented a shack and saved the rest for her studies, she dedicated all her time and energy towards her studies and finally she graduated and with God’s grace she managed to start a mini restaurant with only a stretch tent and few plastic chairs and old tables she bought from second hand shop but to her surprise her business blossomed she even managed to rent a proper restaurant within few months in business and now owns more than ten(10) restaurants across the country.