My Story Part Four

I found work after I moved to Pretoria and Dolf applied for a divorce. I had a written agreement with his attorney that Lili could visit him in Kuruman for two weeks every six months. He also had to pay R500 towards maintenance for Lili.

The first visit was a disaster. Dolf simply refused to bring Lili back to me and threatened to hurt me if I attempted to fetch her. In the end I paid R3 000 for protection to help me to get her back. When I got back in Pretoria, I took Lili to emergencies at the hospital, we knew something was wrong because she had a terrible fever. She had tonsilitis and a chest infection. I couldn't believe that Dolf never took her to a doctor. Dolf didn't contact Lili again for three months, the next visit went a little smoother though.

During July 2002, I became involved with a man who was thirteen years older than me. He was working with me and he was still married and had two children but his marriage ended long before we met. This man was Johan.

After a month or so his wife finally left him and since Johan's mom had mainly raised their children and he was living with them, she left her children there. I moved in with him but his parents made it clear that they didn't approve of me and Johan treated Lili badly. I left him after two months and went with Lili when she visited Dolf at the end of 2002.

During that visit, Dolf and his mother had a terrible argument after he didn't come home one night and she accused him of smoking marijuana.

When I got back in Pretoria, Johan begged me to go back to him and I did.

If only I knew then what hell I was gonna go through for the next 5 years......