Tale of beloved daughter gone too soon
Reeva: A Mother’s Story
THE OSCAR Pistorius trial was really all about Oscar. We read or watched on television what he did or didn’t say or do regarding the fateful evening he shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
By the end of the trial we felt like we knew him. We knew details about him that we didn’t know about our best friends. He was all about control and power, a contrast to what friends said about Reeva, describing her as a kind and gentle soul.
We all had an opinion and many felt sure that he was guilty of deliberately killing her. He was easy to assess because he was there.
But there was no real voice for Reeva. She was the beautiful model, represented in court by efficient, suited lawyers and, at the end, by a mourning cousin.
In this book, her mother June Steenkamp takes us through her childhood. Reeva was a
for her and her second husband Barry.
There was not much money back then. She adored her dad as a child and became June’s best friend as an adult. She was popular, clever, kind and, as an adult, worked hard to support herself and help her parents.
June’s story reveals a caring and soft-hearted daughter who adored her parents.
June and Barry had lived apart for 14 years until 2008, five years before Reeva’s death. It was Reeva who plotted to get them back together again, perhaps prophetically knowing they would need each other after she was gone.
June shares some of the anguish of the trial. Her strategy was to be there for Reeva, to look Oscar in the eye, and not talk to the press.
This book is about Reeva, written by a grieving mom about her sweet daughter gone too soon. – Heather Bisset