Granny’s corpse was found in a tree kilometres away and her grandson’s further away
Water trickles beneath a lopsided grey Chevrolet Aveo car, holding back a mass of muddy debris on a steep and treacherous embankment at a home on Kingsmead Drive in Westville, outside Durban.
Mangled and crushed beneath the rubble, the vehicle was a fortress against a powerful mudslide for the Ramchunder family, but sadly couldn’t save its owner, Paula Taylor, 55, and her five-year-old grandson Laeeq Napier.
A picture of Taylor clutching Laeeq, seated on the boot of her vehicle, was shared thousands of times on social media this week after the pair were swept away in the early hours of Tuesday morning in a devastating landslide that destroyed their granny flat beneath the Ramchunder’s triple garage.
Taylor’s son, Joshua, 25, cheated death by clinging to a piece of rubble and fought his way to the surface before being pulled to safety by the Ramchunder family as the rain continued to pelt down and wash away everything they held dear.
Taylor’s body was found in a tree by search-and-rescue police on Wednesday, a few kilometres downstream of her home. Laeeq’s body was found late on Friday further down stream.
Geena Ramchunder, 52, could not find the words to express their loss. She said while they were Taylor’s landlords they had grown to become like family to their three tenants.
“Laeeq turned five last week. He was such a precious little boy. He loved toy cars and always wanted to watch Peppa Pig. He would come and squeeze my face and say ‘I love you.’ I took him as my own grandchild.”
Ramchunder’s son, Akhil, said if Taylor’s car hadn’t been parked where it was, the rest of their home would have been wiped out.
“We had no warning. My dad looked outside and noticed all the houses and trees above us were coming down. He screamed for us to take cover and before I could even get out of bed, my room was filled with water.”
After locating his sister Ekta and his father Raven, the trio managed to get out of the house through a window and screamed for their mother who was still in the house.
“We looked around and couldn’t find her. We expected the worst. After about 15 minutes we heard her voice. She’d managed to somehow get out of the bedroom after the roof collapsed over her. She rolled into her bathroom and was trapped there.”
Neighbours rushed to their rescue and managed to get Geena to safety.
Paula’s cousin Brenda Mhlungu, 53, described her as a loving and God-fearing woman.
“She was friendly and kind. She always took people in to help them with food — any way she could help, she would. Laeeq and Paula were inseparable, they did everything together. He loved his grandma.”
She said on April 1 she took Laeeq to a restaurant as a pre-birthday celebration. “He stayed at my house for a sleepover and I took him back on Saturday. He was so wise, we would always say he’s a 20-year-old in a little person’s body.”
She said Joshua had a number of cuts and bruises and was an emotional wreck.