LOUIS WILSENACH

● Louis Wilsenach felt tired and went to George, Western Cape, to rejuvenate.

But the marketing and advertising guru returned home feeling ill. He dismissed it as flu, convincing daughter Mia Ziervogel and grandson Luca, with whom he lived in Muldersdrift, Gauteng, that he simply needed bed rest.

Ziervogel took him to hospital on March 27. “After I had booked him into the emergency room and I waited for two hours for nursing staff to come call me, I was allowed to see him for one minute,” she said. It was their last conversation.

“The last four days of his life were spent in isolation and it was a nightmare not to be able to see him. We never thought he wouldn’t pull through.”

Wilsenach, 79, died of Covid-19 on March 30 in a hospital in Mogale City.

Ziervogel said her religious father taught them to “live life to the max”.

His ad agency worked on campaigns for Simba, Cadbury, Jeep and MercedesBenz. He founded the Head Start School in Soweto for preschool children.

He was buried next to his wife, Gretchen. Neither of his children could attend his funeral because Ziervogel was in isolation and her brother, Len, wasn’t permitted to travel. Wilsenach’s adopted son, Tebogang, his grandson Max and his partner were there.

“As a man who made a huge impact on the world, who touched every person he met … It was the hardest day for my family,” Ziervogel said.

“My dad touched many lives so his funeral would have been very well attended.”