Hi. My name is Marlene Jonas and I’m from Northam, Limpopo. I was born in Tembisa, Gauteng. I’m 24 years old and a mother of two boys. I was raised by a single parent. It was not easy growing up in my skin colour. It brought tension to my family which ended up driving certain family members apart.
On the 19th of August 2016, close to midnight our neighbours started arguing. My mother and I quickly ran out to assist the woman, called the police and ambulance to attend to the matter. After some time, we went back to our house. We were talking then I started feeling thirsty so I went to the kitchen and had some water. While I was drinking the water my left leg started feeling weak, but I just went back to bed anyway. Not long after that, my left arm started feeling heavy and I couldn’t lift it. I called my mother to help me so she rubbed my hand. Immediately afterwards, my mouth and tongue followed. I was confused. I became unconscious.
I woke up to find myself in Hospital. Thabazimbi Hospital. My mouth and nose were bleeding. The Hospital transferred me to Pietersburg Hospital, Polokwane. I was in ICU for a week. Afterwards, I attended physio-, occupational and speech therapy to assist me to get back my abilities.
LIFE AFTER STROKE
A couple of years have passed and adjusting has been difficult. I wasn’t able to continue physiotherapy after being discharged from the Hospital over distance. Which means, I’m still using a wheelchair. Everything I wanted to do, I had to back out from taking part in because of my current situation of being a stroke survivor. Including not being able to write my matric. Even though I had my mother there, it wasn’t enough.
On February 2019, a family relative sexually abused me. It caused my mother so much pain that she ended up passing away a couple of weeks later.
Currently, I live with my two boys, my older brother and my boyfriend. I have no support from my family. My older brother is unemployed. He is unable to help. We live on my disability grant and it’s not enough. The most hurtful part about this is, I get more support from my boyfriend than my own family.
