Errol Dies

Errol Pettersson, my brother , had just given his wife Caryl, a lift into work in Empangeni, Zululand and was driving home, when a woman driver did a u-turn on the highway in front of him. He swerved to avoid hitting her or any other vehicle and his car rolled down an embankment. Errol was a very strong person and managed to stand up and lean on the car until his wife arrived. He managed to tell her exactly what had happened before the arrival of an ambulance. His injuries were of such magnitude, that he lapsed into a coma shortly after arriving at the hospital. The doctors tried everything they could to keep him alive and revived him three or four times. His ribs on one side had mostly snapped off against his spine and were sticking into his chest. Errol was a crushed and damaged man and he went through 2 livers and 7 kidneys, a tracheotomy and countless drugs that the doctors tried, in their efforts to save him.

Without regaining consciousness, Errol passed away. November 10th, 1943 - July 13th, 1997

Errol, if there is such a wonderful thing as life after death, you are now together with Mommy, Daddy, Carl (Carl's story below), David, Jacko and you have by now, met our brother Ernest. I believe you are in a happier, kinder place than this. One day, we will all be together again.

Karl Dies - Errol's son

Karl was Errol his wife Caryl's only child. They had just immigrated to South Africa, from Zambia and were residing in a caravan which was parked in the garden of a relative. The parents were inside the house with Karl sleeping peacefully inside the caravan. Crying was heard inside the caravan by the maid but she took no notice. Suddenly everybody heard what sounded like an explosion and they ran outside to find the top of the caravan virtually blown apart. The little light from the fridge of the caravan had released its deadly fumes and eventually this caught alight. Being unable to enter the caravan through the door, Errol smashed his fist through the back window and grabbed Karl who was not burnt in any way, but the smoke inhalation had tortured his tiny lungs and nothing could be done to bring this poor baby back to life. Does anyone ever survive the death of their own child?? No they don't..ever!!

Evelyn

Evelyn Pettersson Carra, my sister, left Zambia to live in the Bahamas to get away from the trauma of a relationship problem. She worked as a secretary and made friends with Fred Baldasare, the free dive champion of the world. They were in a bar one night when the group started talking about a World Champion dive competition that was going to be in Freeport in a couple of weeks. Somebody in the group dared her to enter the competition. Back in those days a dare was a dare and she readily agreed to be a part of this and with the aid of Fred she started to train. Bearing in mind that having come from a small town like Kitwe, she had never even dreamt of diving. Now the diving that I am talking about is not the type from the end of a diving board or the side of a pool. This diving, is taking a deep breath of air and diving down without breathing apparatus and going down as far as you can. To cut a long story short, she dived 110', the record for women's underwater diving and got her name in the Guiness Book of Records after only 9 hours training. Now that was determination! In 1966, one year later, she dived again. At 125' 3" below the surface - as deep as the tallest building in the Bahamas is high - she pinned a peg to a weighted cable, then shot back to the surface. Five divers wearing Scuba gear watched her every foot of the way.

Now, I have learnt a lot from Evelyn and that is..... women do not have to cook and in fact I seldom do these days. Once I was over at my sister and dinner time came around. She went off to the kitchen to prepare something to eat....Wow, I thought, Evelyn Cooking??????? My God....she returned with a plate on which were only three things.........strong cheese, cut up into squares, Madeira cake in slices and lots of chocolate. Of course all this was washed down the hatch with strong, hot coffee. Now that was the entire dinner and believe it or not one of the more delicious meals I have eaten. Is she a tad eccentric???? Well yes, why do you ask??...but then, she dared then and she dares now, to be different....totally different....:-))

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