Good Morning Angels Festive Edition: Helping mom with autistic daughter
The Angels came together to help a widowed mother and her autistic four-year-old daughter. The Good Morning Angels Festive Edition is proudly sponsored by Roman's Pizza.
BACKGROUND: Cathrine Havenga describes herself as the mother to Paige Faithe Havenga and widow to Dirk Havenga.
"We have nobody else, except one another," she continues.
2021 has been a year of loss and grief for many. For this little family from Primrose on the East Rand, the loss of Dirk, due to a suspected blood clot, was very unexpected and devastating, "We were not prepared for this and had no policies in place. I suppose we expected to have many more years together."
Catherine and Dirk were married for five years. They ran a maintenance business from home and raised Paige, Dirk’s daughter from another relationship. Paige has many struggles besides being Autistic and still wearing nappies, Paige is scheduled for surgery in December - to correct her feet, as she is walking on her toes.
The surgery will take place in a State Hospital. Since Dirk’s passing, Cathrine has had no income and she will have to stay home to look after Paige after her surgery for a few more weeks. That’s why Cathrine wrote to Good Morning Angels, for some assistance to get them through December and into 2022 when she hopes to be back on her feet again.
REQUEST FOR: Cathrine Havenga
ANGEL: Bonnie Cooper, representing Roman's Pizza.
SPONSORING: Roman's Pizza will assist Cathrine Havenga and her daughter with R35 000 to help with medical expenses.
ORIGINAL REQUEST:
Good morning Angels
It is with complete sadness and a broken heart that I write this letter, I am writing this letter with hope and faith on behalf of my four-year-old daughter, as we have nobody else except each other.
At the beginning of October I noticed that my husband of 5 years started losing weight, he said he felt fine and carried on working and taking care of us. We had a small maintenance business from home that kept us financially stable. I stayed at home doing the business advertising, quotes, invoices etc and taking care of our four-year-old autistic little girl and he went out and did the work, he worked so hard and never ever complained. Life was great, we lived humbly, we were grateful for everything, we felt blessed, but then something tragic happened.
On 18 October, my husband went to do work at his sisters' house and she noticed that he had lost so much weight. She immediately made an appointment to see her doctor to do blood tests. We received the blood test results by the end of the day and it showed that his red blood count was extremely low, he was severely anaemic, his kidneys were under pressure and advised us to have him admitted to the hospital immediately. On 19 October, we admitted him to Tambo Memorial and the emergency doctor suspected that he had a bacterial blood infection, and they then put on antibiotic drips to try and flush the bacteria. He never saw another doctor again until Sunday 24 October and was given 2 pints of blood. The Monday, the day after they put him on oxygen to help his breathing, the Tuesday he was scheduled for a CAT scan during which he passed on. Blood tests later revealed that his blood was too thick and he died from a blood clot that went through his heart or lung. We buried him on the 2nd of November.
The passing of my husband still feels so surreal. He was a beautiful man, the Love of my life, Daddy to a beautiful little girl, our rock our breadwinner and in a blink of an eye, our lives have changed. I am left alone to take care of our little girl that, besides being Autistic and still wearing nappies, is scheduled for surgery on the 8th December. She will be in casts for a few weeks and I will need to be home to care for her, but in the meantime somehow we still need to survive, which is the reason for my letter.
I am hoping that somewhere out there is an Angel that can come to our aid. We desperately need help getting through December into the new year. We were not prepared for this and had no policies in place, I suppose we expected to have many more years together.
I am writing this with a broken heart, with Love, with Faith and Hope. Please hear my heart.
Kind regards,
Cathrine Havenga
The Good Morning Angels Festive Edition is proudly sponsored by Roman's Pizza.
