Bay woman launches poetry collection dealing with pain of losing children
A Gqeberha author who has lost two children launched a poetry collection she wrote as a healing method on Saturday.
Rozetta Whitting spoke about her book, Hope After Pain, during an emotional event at the ACVV Hall in Algoa Park.
She wrote the book after the death of her son Alvin, who had Down syndrome and was bipolar.
Alvin was one of Whitting’s two remaining children after her daughter died in a car accident when she was 2½ years old.
Whitting said the pain of losing Alvin, who had been by her side all his life, was so unbearable that she would wake up at night to write down what she felt.
“I want this book to go out to all the corners it can reach,” she said.
“It’s a personal journey between myself and my three children, two of whom have already passed away.
“It’s not just another poetry book, but something from my heart that will touch others.”
She said several guests opened up to her about their own loss and pain after the launch.
“Many of them told me that they felt like the launch had been made for them. Some had lost children and others, brothers and mothers.”
Hope After Pain was a healing journey for her and would be a counselling journey for the reader, she said.
The pain of losing a child was one that never went away.
“When I lost my daughter, I couldn’t attend her funeral because I was in hospital.
“The pain was so much and I was in such a bad space that sometimes I would tell my mother to leave even though she was there to help me.
“Both my children never had a sickbed. They were just ripped away from me.”
Whitting said Alvin’s life had been like a miracle.
“Alvin was by my side for 33 years even though doctors told me that children like him lived only up to their teenage years.
“The day he died, he actually played dead and I shouted at him and he laughed.”
Whitting said she knew that Alvin would have been by her side during the launch of her book.
“I wouldn’t have been on my own. Alvin would have been by my side.
“The way I see it, both my [late] children were smiling down at me,” she said.
The publishing of the book was sponsored by the department of sports, recreation, arts and culture.