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Our hearts are heavy with grief following the untimely passing of 18 year-old progeria-suffer, Ontlametse Phalatse, who was laid to rest last week Friday.
Told that she wouldn’t live past her 14 th birthday, Phalatse defied the odds and reached adulthood. She was bigger than life itself, constantly refusing to let her condition dictate the rules she would play by throughout her life. As the first South African to be diagnosed with progeria, “the first lady” (the title that Ontlametse styled herself by) would not let progeria place an expiry date on her mortal existence.
She crept into our hearts as a nation some years ago, and forever stayed there. As one of the young people who chose to make the most of their short lives (think Nkosi Johnson and Mattie J.T. Stepanek), she has left the world in a better state than she found it. I really wish that Ontlametse’s mother, Bellon, will write a book about this brave fighter’s life. Challenge accepted Jacana Media/ Blackbird Books?
Ontlametse truly is of the class of the late and great such as Johnson and Stepanek, therefore, Nkosi Johnson: I salute you; Mattie J.T. Stepanek: I salute you; and Ontlametse Phalatse: I salute you all the way to heaven and back.
