MY NEW CHAPTER
After 23 years on the show, she’ll miss her 7de Laan family – but actress Ingrid Paulus is ready to embrace what comes next
SHE’S used to moving around – over the years she and her husband have had several homes in and around Johannesburg and she’s become an expert at packing and unpacking boxes. But this time, things are different. Ingrid Paulus isn’t only saying goodbye to the City of Gold, she’s bidding farewell to the set that’s become like home, the people who’ve become like family – and the character whose skin she’s lived in for so long. Ingrid (46), who became a household name after playing Vanessa in 7de Laan, recently filmed the final scenes of the hit SABC2 soapie and it’s been tough.
“I’m still recovering,” she says. “I miss my people, my Laan family.” The living room of her and husband Denver Vraagom’s home is stacked with boxes to be transported to Cape Town and it’s been quite a process, she tells us.
“When I started packing a few weeks ago, I became very anxious because it’s traumatic to pack up your life.
“I got home one Saturday and told Denver I’m panicking now, I don’t know if I can do this. He just sat me down and said, ‘It’s going to be okay, we’re going to have to get on with it and do what puts us outside our comfort zone’.”
Saying goodbye to Hillside and its people has been bittersweet for Ingrid. Although she’ll miss her colleagues terribly, she’s looking forward to the beginning of a new and unknown chapter.
“It’s scary but also exciting. Hope is brewing within me, even though I haven’t found anything permanent yet. I’m the kind of person who thrives on making and executing plans, but right now all my plans are out the window. And that’s okay.
“With my family and my friends as my safety net, there’s nothing I can’t overcome. That’s the thing about 7de Laan people. You can throw anything our way and we’ll keep smiling.”
INGRID wasn’t surprised when news broke in July that the long-running soap created by producers Danie Odendaal and Annie Basson was coming to an end in December. Around 100 people, including the permanent cast, crew and short-term actors, lost their jobs after the SABC decided to decommission the show.
“Some of us expected it, myself included,” she says. “And when they announced it, I thought, ‘Okay, okay, it’s happening now. Take a deep breath’.”
The cast and crew were informed about the cancellation shortly before the news was made public and they went through a rollercoaster of emotions – shock, anger, frustration, denial.
“We cried and hugged each other. And then it sunk in: we had only three months to finish telling the story.”
Despite the fact the news wasn’t a big surprise to her, Ingrid struggled to accept the show she’d dedicated herself to for more than two decades was well and truly over.
“In our house we have a rule: when we get home we can rant and rave about work for 20 minutes. But after such an announcement, Denver and I often exceeded those 20 minutes and gave expression to all our frustrations, emotions and fears.”
Denver, who worked as a director on 7de Laan, moves out from behind his
laptop and joins his wife to talk about the difficult months behind them.
“I didn’t like how they delivered the news,” he says. “It hurt – not so much for me because as a freelance actor and director, I’ve been through many productions that’ve closed their doors, like Egoli and Isidingo.
“But it was painful for Ingrid because 7de Laan gave her stability – even if she sometimes moaned about how she’d like to do other things,” he adds with a smile.
One major concern, of course, was the loss of income. “I was terribly scared,” Ingrid admits. Her first thought was about her daughters, Skye (19) and Hannah (3). “Will I be able to send them to school? Will I have enough petrol in my car?”
She also felt the show had many more stories to tell. “We’re still relevant. In terms of TV history in South Africa, 7de Laan played such a big role.”
SHE’S been part of the cast since the show first aired in April 2000 and leaving after 23 years felt like the rug was being pulled from under her feet. She was driving her car one day when things simply became too much. “A primal screaming sound came out of me. My foundation had been shaken.”
Her mom, Emma Paulus, helped her put things into perspective when she reminded her many other people were out of work and she was in a better position than the majority of them. “I could still say we had a roof over our heads, we had food to eat. In most cases, this isn’t the reality for others.
“And from there I changed my mindset. I told myself, ‘You aren’t the first to go through something like this – use your talents and pave a way. Don’t just sit idle.’”
In the run-up to her last day on set she went through all the stages of mourning. And before the cameras started rolling for the final time, she became silent inside. “I had to take that moment to drink everything in,” she says.
“In my mind’s eye, I went back to when Danie and Annie called me to say I got the role of Vanessa. I saw everyone’s faces, all the old characters, remembered the stories we told.”
Before filming her last scene, Ingrid went to her dressing room and said a prayer of thanks to the people of Hillside and the viewers who made her character a fan favourite.
Her mom didn’t like Vanessa at first, Ingrid says. “But I knew at some point she’d get used to her. Vanessa gave me spunk, she gave me confidence. As she grew up, I grew up.”
The show was filmed in Joburg and the city has been home to Ingrid for years. “I’m going to miss the jacarandas and the weather, my favourite petrol station and my car wash and the parks where I took my children. Joburg is a melting pot of everything. People recognised me as Vanessa, but also as myself. It was nice.”
Now Cape Town beckons for Ingrid, Denver and the girls. The couple have plans to start their own production company “to tell the stories we know”, but if the right role comes along at the right time, she’ll seize it with both hands, Ingrid says.
But first she wants to get settled with her family. “We’re still looking for a place to live,” she says. “Some of my husband’s family lives there, so we can stay with them until we’ve found our feet.”
She isn’t too concerned about her future, Ingrid adds. “I don’t worry too much about it. From now on, I’m taking things minute by minute, day by day. If the Lord closes one door, he opens 10 others and all the windows.”
‘I’M NOT THE FIRST TO GO THROUGH SOMETHING LIKE THIS – I’LL USE MY TALENTS AND PAVE A WAY’
WATCHING her shimmy up a pole and then spin and twirl around with gravity-defying grace isn’t just a spectacular sight – it’s nothing short of miraculous.
Kaitlin Rawson might very well be in a wheelchair today instead of treating the pole as her aerial dance partner. Seven years ago she was training for her first competition when the unthinkable happened: she fell and broke her neck.
“I was in a class that I attended every week. We were trying a new move called a brass bridge – you’re basically upside down, holding onto the pole with the back of one leg and your hands are above your head,” Kaitlin (26) recalls.
“I was holding the position for a long stretch because I wanted my sister to get a photo of me, but I lost my grip and my leg slipped. I landed on the front of my neck while my back was in a bent position.”
Her injuries were so severe doctors warned her family she might not make it – but Kaitlin is one heck of a fighter.
She not only learned to walk again, but was also back on the pole as soon as she was able. Her recent achievements bear testament to her incredible drive and determination.
Kaitlin won a gold medal at the World Pole and Aerial Championships in Poland last month. She also recently qualified as a coach with the International Pole Sports Federation and is training up-and-coming athletes.
Her first batch of students recently competed in the aerial hoop division in a national competition in Johannesburg, doing tricks on a metal ring suspended from the ceiling – and Kaitlin was thrilled when one of her trainees qualified for the aerial hoop world championships.
This sport is Kaitlin’s life and being involved in it gives her life meaning and purpose. So much has happened since her accident – and yet the moment everything went so wrong will haunt her forever.
TERROR set in when she crumpled to the ground and realised she didn’t have any sensation below her neck. As she lay there one of the women in her class, who was a paramedic, rushed to her aid and stabilised her until the ambulance arrived.
“I was probably lying there for about 30 minutes, but it felt like a very long time,” she says. “I didn’t lose consciousness at any point. I was fully aware. I could hear and see everything.”
She was taken to Netcare Olivedale Hospital in Randburg where she was treated before being airlifted to Netcare Milpark Hospital for surgery for her shattered neck.
Surgeons removed fragmented pieces of broken vertebrae from Kaitlin’s neck and replaced it with metal to strengthen her spinal column and hopefully give her a chance of regaining some mobility.
“I learned later that the doctors had taken my family aside before the operation and told them there was a significant risk I wouldn’t survive. As the spine injury was so high up, the anaesthetic could affect my diaphragm – meaning I’d be unable to breathe.”
The surgery was a success, but Kaitlin and her family were warned to brace
‘I JUST LOVE POLE SO MUCH I COULDN’T IMAGINE MYSELF NOT DOING IT’
themselves for the possibility that her paralysis could be permanent.
Despite the grim prognosis, a day later Kaitlin was wiggling her fingers and toes – and she continued to confound her medical team with her progress.
She was told rehab could take up to a year, but less than three months later she was back on her feet.
Her injury meant she had to pause her degree in economics and international studies at Monash University, but because her rehab went so well she caught up with a summer school and was on track to start the next year of her course.
Mom Debbie (49), dad Frank (56) and sister Jade (24) took care of her when she returned home, cooking for her and helping her bathe.
Kaitlin had one goal in mind: getting back on the pole as soon as she was strong enough.
“I just love pole so much I couldn’t imagine myself not doing it,” Kaitlin tells us when we meet her at The Pole Playground, the studio in Blairgowrie in Joburg where she trains.
Purple and grey gym mats line the wooden floor and five floor-toceiling poles are spaced around the studio.
“I got out of rehab at the end of November 2016 and I was back in pole classes in January 2017. I started right at the beginning and went back to beginner’s classes.”
A year later she was ready to start competing again. “I just entered like everyone else in the artistic division. I didn’t really care about where I placed because I knew there were things I wasn’t going to do as well as I could before.”
ALTHOUGH her recovery is nothing short of remarkable, Kaitlin didn’t emerge completely unscathed. Her injury affected her muscles and she has limitations, which make competing in able-bodied divisions difficult.
“My muscles take a bit longer to get fired up and working. And my right side is more affected than my left,” she says. “Multitasking with my muscles is a little bit difficult – it’s hard for me to point the toes of my right foot when my muscles are engaged in something else as well,” she explains.
“My reflexes in my right hand are also delayed – in pole sports there are some moves for bonus points where you have to release your hands and then quickly grab the pole again, so that’s a little difficult for me. “And my core stability is not as strong as it was.”
In 2019 Kaitlin learned about the para-pole division and discovered she was eligible because of the muscle weakness her injury had caused.
“I entered the national competition and didn’t really know what to expect because it was my first time. But I ended up getting a much higher score than I was expecting and I thought I could compete in the world championships because my score was at the level of other world champs.”
She competed that year and won a silver medal, which was a huge achievement. In 2020 there were no competitions due to the pandemic and the following year competitions were held online. Kaitlin won gold in the international contest.
Now she has her gold medal in Poland to add to her collection and has the confidence to leave the para-pole division behind.
From now on, she says, she wants to focus on aerial hoop, which doesn’t have a para category. She’s also keen to start her own studio.
For Kaitlin, the sky-high pole is the limit.