FOR ALL I'VE LOST

To my heart, my soul, my pillar of strength, friend and father, i dedicate this post to you:

On 18 January 2011, I lost my father to death, but more so I lost a whole part of me, I lost the life I had occupied for the past 19 odd years but most of all when you died, I died with you.

No words, no dedications, no preparations and no classes could ever even begin to prepare you to endure this sense of loss, pain and emptiness. It can never prepare a daughter to say goodbye to the one man whose loved her unconditionally since birth.

On my 18th birthday you wrote:" It seems like only yesterday, 18 years ago on this day, when paki rushed your mother to hospital as you came into this world at high speed and one of the best moments of my life - time flies"

My dad was right "Tempus Fugo"(meaning time flies was the phrase he used) and so i say cherish every moment you have with your loved ones for you may never know when they will be taken away from you. The grim reaper has no favourites and waits for noone. All it takes is a stop of a heartbeat to shatter your heart and change your whole world.

To all those who have lost a loved one, I can only pray that healing comes at a faster pace as mine. We can only hope joy comes in the morning. It is said death is the first step to eternity and that their spirits live among us so we can only hope to feel it one day.

As we have loved them in life, let us not forget them in death. Dwell us not in our pain for death, we cannot runaway from.

                                            GUGULETHU LUYANDA MIZA
affectionately known as 'sikiza" was born of Zimasile Miza and Pansy Miza on this day (08 March) 52 years ago. He stareted his primary education at the age of four at Lovedale Primary School in Alice. He matriculated in 1976 at Healtown

He was first employed as clerk stationed at Isilimela Hospital, Port St Johns . He then proceeded to the Walter sisulu university(forerly known as Unitra) wherer he obtained his b. Juris LLB.

On completion of his studies he worked as a prosecutor and later a magistrate between 1983 and 1990. He enrolled as a candidate attorney in 1990 under the tutelage of Mr Khwezi Nodada until 1995. He started his own practice from 1995 and it was during this time that he obtained an LLM degree with UNISA. He worked as an attorney and also as the commissioner of small claims court in Mthatha until his departure on 18 January 2011.

One of his very last sms he sent me read: "Hope - Every night we go to bed, we have no assurance to get up alive in the next morning but we still we set alarms to wake us up and still make plans for the coming day...thats hope. Hope in the Almighty for He is faithful and just." Lets live in hope.

As my birthday gift to you, i promise that with every breath that you've lost, I will take one
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MULA, PEANUTS, SIKIZA,GMAN,THE TIMER!!!!!!Your memory lives in our hearts but most of all...you are sorely missed

EVERYTHING IS EVERYTHING