Family Tragedy
My brother Neil spent a few hours at a braai when he was 19. He left the party earlier because he wanted to be at work early the next morning. He’d had a few drinks, so his friends insisted on driving or following him home.They even took away his bike’s keys. He insisted he was fine, and they all handed his keys back to him and watched him drive off.
The braai was at a farm nearby, and there was a bit of fog on the quiet road. A car was approaching from ahead, and it seems like a car behind that one tried to overtake, but hit my brother instead.
He was nineteen.
The driver of the other car took off and left my brother there. We can only assume that the other driver had been drinking, and thus fled the scene in fear of criminal charges.
My brother was a very good driver, and I feel he could have avoided the accident if he was more alert at the time.
His friends also drove back into town about an hour later, and that’s when they found my brother and the remains of his bike on the road. They had to phone my parents and tell them that their son was dead. My father held his empty body on the roadside and cried. My mother has never been the same.
So many lives were changed that night. My brother lost his. His friends placed his keys back in his hands. The person that caused the accident could have been jailed for life. I am sure that they live in guilt and shame. How do you forgive yourself for something like that? His friends and family that miss him every. single. day.
Don’t let your drinking harm other people or yourself. Don’t let your friends drive drunk. Call them a cab like Goodfellas. Arrange drivers for your staff when you have work functions that involve drinking. Ask a friend to fetch you. Take cabs when you go out on the town. Being drunk is basically a state of temporary brain damage. Plan ahead to protect yourself and others from tragedy.
Neil would have been 29 this year. It’s been ten years. I see glimpses of him in my toddler, Noah. He will never meet my husband or my kids. He will never have his own.
He was on the right side of the road. He didn’t cause the accident.
He wanted to be at work early at his very first job, that he’d just started at. He was a really nice, genuine guy.
He didn’t deserve this.
