We’re halfway through 2013 and a new road lies before our feet. Last year was my “annus horibilis” – a year I never want over again! It was a time of intense pain, loss, fear, confusion and disaster. I’ll go over it very superficially because nobody wants to dwell on the negative. In June last year I underwent ankle surgery after Barbara accidentally knocked me over and stood on my left ankle, severing and damaging the tendons terribly. During the surgery I stopped breathing, and nearly died. The surgery and after effect of the not breathing spell left me sick and weak for several weeks. I was just back on my feet or Johan had to undergo surgery for a hernia. And shortly after that he started complaining about pain in his hips, which sent up running to his haematologist, Dr Jackie Thomson. Shock and horror – Johan has developed Plasmacitosis from the bone marrow cancer and his hip bones were severely affected. Cancer again!! Hospitals again! Radiation treatment and chemotherapy again! No God, please!! Why?? Shortly after this he bumped his left arm – and it cracked. Ordinary people would have had a bruise. Johan broke his arm and had to undergo surgery to insert a pin. He was home for a few weeks and then the next disaster struck. He fell and shortly afterwards started complaining about back pain. It got so bad that he had to walk with crutches. One horrible day he turned, leaning on a crutch, and his right upper arm snapped like a twig. I rushed him, screaming with pain, to the Pretoria East hospital. After an extensive MRI scan the horrible truth hit us – a vertebra in his back had collapsed and was pressing against the spinal column. His bones were badly eroded from the bone marrow cancer. A pin was inserted into his right arm from the shoulder to the elbow and he underwent an extensive back operation. Just as he was home – actually the Monday after he got home, I went out to deworm the horses and found Timo’s stable empty. Now what?? Running back home I heard something in Oepke’s camp and stable and the most horrifying scene greeted me – Timo had broken into Oepke’s camp and was biting and kicking him to bits. Oepke was a mass of bleeding and torn flesh. As I tried to get Oepke out of the camp and away from Timo, he grabbed my left arm in his mouth and bit me. Pain and panic and fear and shock made him lash out at the first thing he could find – me. The vet was summoned to patch Oepke up and I was rushed to hospital. Oepke recovered quickly and well. I was not so lucky – I ended up in hospital with severe infection in my arm. But eventually I started getting better and we could move on.
In the meantime Melissa Strydom and Roxanne Vorster had come to help us through this very difficult time in our lives. They took over the horses, the household and many of the tasks I just couldn’t face anymore. I was a mess. Broken, anxiety stricken, severely depressed. Due to all this Johan and I decided to sell the horses, our farming equipment, cattle – everything. We started 2013 on a very low note. Everything was going to pieces – especially us.
I ended up in a psychiatric hospital for treatment. During my stay there Madonna and Anouk were sold and Oepke and Veon went to Friesenprag stables outside Pretoria to be schooled and ultimately sold. In June Ciara, Cheval, Abrielle and Jondalar went to their new home with Hannes Beaurain and his family, a couple of kilometres from us. Xanna went to Stella to fill the hole in her heart left by the older Xanna’s death.
The horses that remained with us are Timo, Valerie, Barbara, Emmerins, Klara, Rozaan, Amiga (Klara’s foal), orphaned Zoltan and Maya, Tanyica’s pony.
Then I got a message on Facebook – Valerie will be moving a new home soon ….
And …..
then the clouds moved away and a ray of bright sunlight broke through – a new direction for Faeriewood Friesians and our horses!! It will be a road not travelled before, but it will be exciting! More am I not going to say, except ……. WATCH THIS SPACE!!
Faeriewood Friesians 