Quantcast
Channel: Western Cape Extended
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 3770

‘I can’t remember who I am’

$
0
0

One moment she was crossing a busy Cape Town road, and the next she woke up in hospital with no memory.

|||

Cape Town - One moment she was crossing Koeberg Road in Maitland and the next she woke up in Groote Schuur Hospital with multiple injuries and little recollection of who she was or where she came from.

Brenda Grootboom (as she sometimes calls herself) was knocked over by a bus in July and social workers and staff at Nazareth House are trying to find out more about her and reunite her with her family.

Grootboom claims she is 24, but the social worker on her case, Jackie Hope, said the age and information she gives differs almost every hour. An age estimation said Grootboom was between the ages of 22 and 27.

“If I ask her about you after you leave here she probably won’t remember. The other day she went to Home Affairs to try and sort out her ID and when she came back and was asked what she had done that day she said ‘nothing’. She doesn’t remember.”

Grootboom was discharged from hospital in September and taken to Nazareth House, a place of safety for children and elderly people.

Hope said Grootboom mentioned names like Elsie Tala, Susan, Phephile and Nobomvu, but the roles they play in her life differ each time she is asked about them. “She said she went to school in Joubertina, but she also mentions living in Tsitsikamma. The people at Missing Children SA called schools in Joubertina, but no one recalls or recognises her. Other areas she mentioned were Milnerton, Delft and Plettenberg Bay.”

Hope said the problem they were facing now was that the legal system did not allow her to stay at Nazareth House as she was an adult and she could not get into an adult place of safety because she had no identity document.

“She is very helpful around here and likes to clean. She was happy when she first got here but she is getting sad now, almost depressed because she desperately wants to go home.”

Hope said her short-term memory also seemed to be affected.

Grootboom said she could not remember anything before the accident, but remembered living in an orange house with her grandmother, a woman she called Elsie Tala.

“The shops were far from where I stayed. I stayed with Elsie, her husband and four children; it was nearby a church. I went to Plett, I cleaned houses there and I did people’s hair.”

Anyone with information on Grootboom or her family can contact Nazareth House on 021 461 1635

yolisa.tswanya@inl.co.za

Cape Argus


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 3770

Trending Articles