Book to help grieving moms cope with their loss
MOTHERS battling to deal with the loss of their children no longer have to continue the generational lineage of keeping the pain to themselves.
Veteran actor and writer Florence Masebe – no stranger to loss of a child – pulled herself out of her cocoon of grief and mourning to meet and speak to mothers facing the same situation during the launch of her second book in Pretoria at the weekend.
Masebe lost her 18-monthold baby boy on her 43rd birth- day on September 16, 2015.
The toddler fell into a pool and drowned at her Joburg home.
The Pretoria leg of the launch of The Heart Knows was held in Hatfield.
Masebe, speaking at the gathering, said she was going through the process of mourning the loss of her son.
She said she had battled to get to the event on time even though she had woken up at 4am on the day.
According to Masebe, as her friend and Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Train- ing Buti Manamela once mentioned, the book wrote itself as she used poetry to serve as a form of therapy to find a way to keep her sanity following the tragedy.
She said she had no intention of publishing the diary entries, but simply sent them to close friends and family whenever they asked how she was coping.
“I kicked many of them out as people would come and give me more books to write in and my reaction was who was asking? But they knew this would help me in some way,” Masebe said.
Initially, however, she said she could not write anything, hence the first six entries appear in her home language, Venda.
“The pain did not know English, so I just wrote whichever way I could express myself. They kept insisting I share these writings to bring healing to other mothers but I couldn’t; I was too selfish.”
She said while others kept trying to push her to publish and share her work, she only decided while trying to help her best friend deal with the loss of her teenage son found hanging in his closet.
Apart from her sister’s threats to steal and publish the work, Masebe said it was more in helping her friend dealing with the loss that she realised she needed to do away with her selfishness.
“Even though my friend knows psychology and is an ordained priestess, she would call me crying, begging me to send her the writing. She said it was her therapy and that is why this book is here now.”
Older generations barely shared with her how to deal with the emotions, and Masebe hoped the book would help them to understand that there was no formula or rules on how to grieve, but to simply take every day as it came.
The book wrote itself as she used poetry to serve as a form of therapy