Dad saves the day with chainsaw
“I THOUGHT it was overkill to have a chainsaw in the boot, but I said if it makes him less anxious, let’s just go with it.”
Ashantha Thompson laughs about it now, but she had anxious moments when a giant storm bore down on Cape Town on the eve of her scheduled caesarean section.
Her husband, John, feared trees might have fallen across the roads on the way from Hout Bay to the hospital in Claremont — a winding route of about 10km. They were due to check in at 7am on Wednesday.
“We had heard there was the huge storm coming. I couldn’t sleep the night before, and from about 3am I was wide awake. I could hear it raging outside and was wondering how we were going to get there. I felt quite anxious,” said Ashantha.
When they got up at 5am, they saw two big trees had fallen on their lawn. These, however, would not block their path.
“I happen to have bought a chainsaw recently, so I threw it in the back of the car,” John said. He is from Canada, famous for its lumberjacks.
“I thought it would be great if I could use it, but didn’t actually think this would be the case.”
A few minutes later, driving through heavily wooded Constantia, they stopped short of an old tree that lay across the road. A driver on the opposite side had his lights shining on it.
“I thought . . . ‘I can get it done pretty quickly with my chainsaw, so people can at least drive around it,’ ” John said.
“People in their cars didn’t stir and just looked at me, but then one guy jumped out and started helping me clear it away.”
Then, 500m further, an even bigger tree lay across the path. This one looked too daunting so they “found another route and zig-zagged all the way to Claremont”, John said.
The baby boy, named Nash, was born on schedule and, said Ashantha, she wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“I thought it was a blessing and didn’t think of rescheduling. Everyone was waiting for rain, and it just so happened that was the day our baby was coming. It’s a good sign,” she said.