“Mommy, I don’t want to go to Daddy this weekend,” the little boy wheedled as his mother packed his clothes and asthma pump in the overnight bag. He hadn’t recovered from the asthma attacks that had kept him out of nursery school for two weeks and wanted to be near his pregnant mom and unborn sibling.
Four-year-old SJ KRUGER told his mother, Liezl Nortjé-Jansen (28), “I don’t want to go away this weekend.”
After years of fighting Liezl and ex-husband Sarel Kruger (29) had finally come to an agreement about what would be best for their son. She had agreed SJ could visit Sarel on Wednesdays and every second weekend. Her only condition was that he shouldn’t take SJ camping in winter.
An asthma sufferer, SJ’s health was often not good in winter and Liezl was concerned he would get sick on a trip.
Her fear that he’d get sick didn’t materialise but something far worse happened. Sarel took SJ camping at Rietvlei, near Pretoria, and early on Father’s Day they were overwhelmed in their tent by gas leaking from a lamp.
“With his weak lungs SJ didn’t stand a chance,” a weeping Liezl says a few days after the tragedy.
Liezel blames Sarel for SJ’s tragic death. “Why did he take SJ camping? He knew he was ill. If they hadn’t gone camping my child would still be alive.”
It hasn’t sunk in that she’ll never see SJ again; she talks about him as if he’s still around. Then suddenly she realises he’s gone and tears stream down her cheeks.
On the morning SJ died she woke with a start at 5 am. “I was suddenly so scared something would happen to him. When the phone rang at 8.30 I knew immediately something was wrong.” By the time she arrived at the hospital he had been declared dead.
The corners of her mouth tremble as she strokes her stomach. “Now that SJ is gone I can’t sleep or eat. I feel nauseous when I try to eat a piece of toast but the gynaecologist says I must for the sake of the baby.
“It comforts me to think of the baby. It also breaks my heart because he’ll never know his brother. And I know SJ will always be with him, SJ will protect his little brother.”
