My name is Wia Kotze. My native language is Afrikaans and I am proud to speak and write this wonderful language. For this story however I have to use English since so many of my friends do not understand Afrikaans.
I live in Pretoria, South Africa. I grew up in the Free State on a farm called "Werda" in the Theunissen district. My parents were farmers and I spent a blissfully happy childhood with my brother Philip and my younger sister Hester. We were at boading school in Theunissen where I matriculated and then went on to study Domestic Science at Pretoria University.
My father, Piet, died in 1967. My mother, Alice is now 91 years old and lives in a retirement home in Pretoria. She is still strong and remarkably healthy for her age and an inspiration to everyone she meets.
After obtaining a BSc. In Home Economics in 1966. I entered a career in dietetics. I started working as a dietitian at Karl Bremer Hospital in the Cape. The prime reason for this unconventional career change was that I wanted to be near my ex fiancee at that time and could not get a job as home economist near Cape Town where I wanted to be! I got the job but the engagement did not last!!
Shortly after we broke up our engagement I moved back to the Free State and worked at the Welkom Provincial Hospital - also as a dietitian. From then onwards my career took off very quickly - I was promoted to chief dietitian for the Free State Provincial Administration in 1969. Not really because I did exceptionally well in my work but rather due to the lack of dietitians at that time. We were only two dietitians in the Free State with me being chief in charge at the tender age of 25!!
In 1972 I took a year's study leave to obtain the dietetic qualifications that I lacked at the time. My career took rapid strides from that rather insecure beginning after I returned from Pretoria at the end of that year. I had wonderful career opportunities of which the highlights were my involvement in the planning of the Cook Freeze Factory Kitchen and the implementation of the cook freeze food system at the Academic hospitals in Bloemfontein. After that I also worked towards the establishment of the Dietetic Department at the University of the Orange Free State and became head of the Department in 1983. In 1987 I commenced with post graduate studies and obtained a Doctorate in Public Administration in 1981. OK! So much for this part that sounds more like a CV!!
Now on to the love of my life!! I met Hennie Kotze on the first evening of my class for the masters degree in Public Administration. He was my lecturer and mentor for all my post graduate studies. No, you are wrong! It was NOT love at first sight - it was "blood sweat and tears" to meet his academic expectations and the goals that he set for me. He was the worst slave driver that you can imagine. With me being the only woman in a class of 30 he also had to make sure that I did not get any special privileges! Hennie and Marie his first wife, became dear friends. She often had to comfort me and produced endless cups of tea while we discussed my thesis.
Marie died very suddenly in 1985. Hennie was very sad and lonely and I tried to provide the support he needed in exchange for the endless hours that he spent to help me with my studies. Our friendship slowly blossomed into a love affair and we eventually tied the knot in 1986. Our marriage lasted for just over 13 wonderful years. Hennie retired from the Universtiy of the Orange Free State in 1989. We then moved to Johannesburg and later to Pretoria.
He kept on encouraging me to pursue my career and was the greatest inspiration for me to start my own school for distance learning in Food Service Management in 1992.
Through his encouragement I wrote sixteen text books of which some are still used by Technikons and Universities in South Africa.
Our happiness was severely tried and tested when Hennie was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue in 1995. At the same time my hearing took its final plunge. The same ENT surgeon that diagnosed Hennie's cancer was consulted about my hearing and he then told me that I would not benefit at all from a CI since my hearing was still "too good".
In January 1999 the cancer really started taking its toll in spite of gruelling sessions of radio and chemotherapy and Hennie had to have surgery to remove a cancerous lymph gland from his neck. During this surgical procedure the nerve to one of his vocal chords also had to be removed. I will never forget the impact of that raw emotion when I tried to talk to him after the operation and realised that I would possibly never hear him talk to me again!! We faced a dismal life - him without a voice and taste and only able to consume fluids and me unable to hear!
My hearing loss was first diagnosed in 1975 and from then onwards my gradual downhill journey to the silent world of the hard of hearing commenced. It was not too bad however since Hennie was always there to be my "ears" and I was excellent at lip-reading.
In June 1999 Hennie was terminally ill and I was desperate to hear better!! I went to an audiologist to find out what was "wrong" with my hearing aid but was told that my hearing aid was perfect but that I had a profound hearing loss and I was referred to the CI team at Pretoria University for an evaluation. Hennie strongly opposed all my efforts to get the CI since he firmly believed that nothing could be done about my hearing loss. However, stubborn as I am, I insisted on going for the evaluation and was accepted as a suitable candidate for a CI. It was a very lonely time for me because I had no spousal support and knew that our medical insurance would only cover a part of the costs.
It was then that Rosi Adendorff came into the picture and provided the first CI miracle for me. I started writing to Rosi and we arranged to meet in Pretoria during August 1999. I missed our appointment to meet due to an E-mail message that was received too late. I left a message to her to phone me and hoped for the best. That same afternoon she phoned...
When the phone rang we had to go through the awkward process that Hennie and I developed for phone conversations. He would tell me that the phone rang; I would answer and tell the caller that I am passing him or her on to Hennie who could not talk loud and clear enough; Hennie would listen; mouth the message to me and pass the phone back for me to talk etc. This time however, he kept on talking!!
When he eventually put the phone down he just said: "Wia, this is a miracle!! Do you realise that this woman has a CI and she could hear my bad voice!! You MUST go for the operation!!" I then went to meet Rosi and the dear woman instantly became my first and very best CI friend! Little did I know at that time how much she would contribute in the time to come to keep me going and bring me back to the hearing world.
From then onwards Hennie almost frantically insisted that I had the surgery "before he died" so that I could cope on my own when he would be there no more...
The next two months were like being on a roller coaster that never stopped. The CI team had a cancellation and I was scheduled for surgery on the 11th of November. Surgery was a BAD experience for me with nausea, dizziness and balance problems for about a week afterwards. Hook-up was three weeks later on the 29th November 1999. All white noise and utter disappointment!! For me - nothing mattered - I did not have time to even think of hearing because I was losing Hennie so fast...Hearing would not be important for me any longer because I would soon have no one to listen to me...
I could not hear with the CI and within a day I realised that there was something very wrong with the speech processor... My audi confirmed this and I was given a Sprint body processor loaner to replace my Esprit behind the ear (BTE) processor. I still could not be bothered. Hennie had stopped eating altogether and was now so weak that he could not even hold a pen to write messages to me. On the morning of 16 December 1999 I HEARD his last words ...
So...This part is my old life - a good one - but also the beginning of my new life with my babblebox. See "Listen it's heaven" for the rest of the story...
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