Chapter Five
Antonie wished he knew who wanted to help him to get better and who his donor was, but no-one was willing to make the information known as the information was treated with strict confidentiality. Whoever it was he wanted to meet his donor and thanked him or her in person for the second chance he will get. But a very long, tough road was still lying ahead of Antonie. He had to start with the chemotherapy and radiation therapy against his will to kill all his stem cells to make place for the healthy ones coming from his donor.
The good thing that came from this was that Antonie and his parents became inseparable and his relationship with Christ became more deep and meaningful by the day. Antonie knew if it wasn’t for his faith, he never would have been able to cope with everything that is happening.
In the short time that Antonie was hospitalised in order to prepare him for the bone marrow transplant a whole series of blood tests were done to make sure that Antonie’s body were functioning relatively normal despite the leukaemia. The series of blood tests were never ending and painful to endure. But all Antonie wanted was to get healthy and for all of this to end.
Antonie had to endure several chemotherapy sessions and he and his family were anxiously awaiting the afternoon when the actual bone marrow transplant was to take place.
In the same hospital at Unitas in Centurion in the oncology ward Paul and his family anxiously awaits the surgery team to come and take him to the surgery room for the last procedure lying ahead. Of all the procedures Paul had to endure this procedure seems to be the least painful of them all since he will be sleeping during the procedure, but it was the procedure he was the most afraid of.
Lourens takes Paul’s hand up in his.
“You must take courage, my son. You’re almost there. Just one more hurdle and you are there. Just remember what the doctor has said. You’ll only be in surgery for an hour and half an hour in recovery. You won’t even have scars and you’ll only feel very sore and stiff, like you fell off a horse.”
“I’m scared, Dad.”
Lourens smiles ruefully. Paul has always been scared for surgery as it is not something that happened that often with Paul.
“Can’t you come with? It is so cold and lonely there.”
“They will take real good care of you. Everything will be all right. You know that. You are going to enjoy a very nice, deep sleep, I wish I were you. Like I said, the doctor said you won’t have too much post-op pain and you’ll be going home tomorrow.”
“I’ll be only at home for three more days and then I need to go back to Jeffreys Bay. It’s so unfair. We barely had the opportunity to spend time with each other. I slept so much as a result of all the injections and tests.”
“It’s okay. We were so fortunate in having you with us, even just for a short while.”
Paul becomes really subdued when the surgery team arrives. This was the moment he waited for for a long while to make a difference in Antonie’s life but he felt scared and unsure.
Some two hours later Paul was back in the ward after the surgery, relatively conscious and groggy, but not grumpy. Tersia takes his hand in hers and softly kisses him on the forehead.
“Hello my sweetheart. Welcome back. Slept okay?”
“Hmm.” Paul replies groggily.
“How are you feeling? Do you have any pain?”
“No…not really…just so thirsty…my throat hurts…”
“It was the pipe in your airways during surgery.”
Tersia pours Paul a glass of water and helps him to take a drink.
“Are you feeling better or do you want some more water?”
“Please bring me some ice…”
“Sure, my love.”
“Where’s Dad?”
“He went out to get a newspaper. I’m sure he’ll bring something for us as well.”
When Tersia comes back with the ice cubes she notices that Paul has fallen asleep again and she leaves him to rest. She is relieved that everything is all over. It has been a very trying time on them as family.
Six months has passed after the bone marrow transplant and it appears as if Antonie’s body has accepted the new bone marrow. He started to consider going back to work but before going back he made a decision to try and meet with Paul in Jeffreys Bay. It wasn’t the small town it used to be but the police station couldn’t be that big and either the human resource management or the other shift members could tell him where to find Paul or when he will be working.
Although Antonie felt almost as strong as he was when he was diagnosed with the leukaemia Otto and Trudie felt very apprehensive of letting Antonie to go to Jeffreys Bay, but they also knew how important it was to him.
With all the necessary arrangements done Antonie arrived safely in Jeffreys Bay. He leaves immediately to the police station to find out where Paul was. But he was never prepared for the surprise awaiting him when he got to the charge office.
“Good gracious!” Paul exclaims, overwhelmed.
“Did the South Easter blow so hard in the Cape that it blew you all the way from Gauteng down here to Jeffreys Bay?”
Antonie smiles embarrassed.
“Hi Paul. I’m glad I found you here.”
“Oh well, I’m at work, but I’m sure I can convince my Warrant Officer to take a break for a while. Looks like you have a lot on your mind. We need to catch up!”
“You know, no-one can ever hide anything from you. You’ve always had the ability to know in advance something is going on. I have so much to talk about and…I’ll really appreciate it if we can do so in private.”
“Of course! Just wait a moment so I can make the necessary arrangements.”
It doesn’t even take five minutes for Paul to come back. He dutifully puts his cap on before they leave the police station, going down to the beachfront.
“This is probably the biggest advantage of working at Jeffreys Bay. The beach is right on your doorstep.”
Antonie laughs and they take a seat on a bench, staring over the ocean.
“So, Antonie, what’s on your mind? I can say it is fate because I wanted to talk to you for so long.”
Antonie frowns.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”
“Antonie, it is a very long story. I don’t have too much time to tell the whole story. I just want to say it was such a privilege to help you.”
Antonie stares at Paul, dumbfounded.
“How are you doing and how is your health?”
“Well, I’m doing much better. The leukaemia is in recess. We are constantly praying and trusting God for a full recovery. So what did you mean by saying that you helped me?”
“Because I was your donor, Antonie…”
“What?” he asks softly.
“When you became sick whilst we were in College…I know that there were so much bad blood between us, but I couldn’t just leave you like that.”
“But how? It is such a complicated process finding a suitable donor. I have a scarce blood type and that is only the start…”
“We have the same blood group, Antonie. That’s how it all started. I had to beg for that information on your medical file. I started with all the arrangements as soon as I started here at Jeffreys Bay police after the training. They conducted a whole series of blood tests to determine if I will be able to help you. It was a very long process, but I pray it was worth it. I hope you get well soon.”
Antonie rests with his head in his hands and swallows hard at the threatening tears.
“Why, Paul? Don’t you know what unresolved issues I had with you? I never deserved your mercy!”
Paul puts his hand on Antonie’s shoulder.
“Give me one person on this earth that deserved Christ’s mercy when He died on the cross for our sins.”
Antonie smiles ruefully.
“I don’t know what to say…I’m speechless…” he stares over the ocean and tries to make sense of what Paul just said, trying his best to process the overwhelm
ing information.
“You don’t have to say anything. I don’t care about your unresolved issues with me. It’s forgiven and forgotten.”
Antonie takes a deep breath to try and calm down the overwhelming emotion inside of him.
“How long are you going to be here in Jeffreys Bay?”
“A week. I need to be back at work. I can’t wait because administration duties are not fun. I want to be a real policeman, doing crime scenes, chasing cars with the blue lights and sirens, the whole thing. So this is a breather before I start.”
“Where do you stay?”
“My dad spoke to someone at the police station that I can stay with them, but I don’t know the people.”
“Do you know with whom he arranged?”
“He phoned the station commander and the station commander arranged with a Mrs Oelofse. Very nice people, but I’m not in the mood for strangers.”
“My grandparents live two blocks from here in Salamander Street. One big, beautiful house. There is one more spare room if you want to come and visit. And my grandfather has a lot of fishing rods. We fish a lot.”
Antonie’s face lights up.
“Are you sure about this? What will your grandparents say? They don’t know me.”
“My dad knows about you. It won’t be a problem. You don’t have to stay there if you don’t want to but I don’t think it is a good idea for you to live off take-outs in this time. My grandmother’s domestic worker makes the nicest cooked meals.”
“I must admit I was wondering what I was going to do in regards to that because I need to take care of my health. But Paul, are you really sure about this?”
“Of course I am. It will be a privilege for us to have you with us.”
Antonie thoroughly enjoyed the short time with the Visser-family and Paul’s grandmother spoilt Antonie rottenly. It was very precious to Antonie because none of his grandparents were still alive and it felt as if he had the privilege of having grandparents again. Antonie also enjoyed the privilege to catch the biggest kabeljou Paul has seen in a long time and to Paul’s amusement Paul’s grandfather grumpily complained about the unfair business of Antonie coming all the way from Gauteng and catching the pride kabeljou of Jeffreys Bay. Paul laughed about his grandfather’s grumpiness about the whole matter because it was all in good spirit and they all knew that Paul’s grandfather had a razor sharp sense of humour.
With Antonie leaving for Pretoria the next day Paul decided that they need to enjoy a horse ride together. He enters Antonie’s room with an extra set of jodhpurs.
“Can you still ride?” he teases Antonie and Antonie laughs.
“That’s not a trick question, is it? How can we ever forget all the fun we had in College? I remember how I laughed at all the so called farm kids that said they could ride.”
“Until they met Angie.”
“Yeah, then they met Angie.”
“You know, I counted that day, the one guy fell 32 times in a space of half an hour.”
“I remember that guy!” Paul laughs heartily.
“He couldn’t get up the next day!”
“Where is this place we’re going? Do you have wheels?”
Paul playfully throws Antonie with a scatter cushion.
“You’re asking too many questions. Of course I’ve got wheels! I always use my grandmother’s yellow Beetle. 1970 model, but still runs like a dream, on its original engine I must add.”
On their way to Papiesfontein they chat on end about everything. In the past week’s time they became best friends and closer than brothers. It felt to Antonie as if God has given him a brother in Paul, the brother he never had.
Arriving at Papiesfontein it is the very rare occasion that it was only Paul, Antonie and the guide and Paul was grateful for it. He has always been a very patient and easy going person but he becomes annoyed when he books a ride and there are people who say they can ride, but when it comes to the canter/gallop part of the ride, they become scared and then the group is held back.
For the first four kilometres they only work on a walk through the fynbos on the route and Paul starts to sense Antonie’s eagerness to really ride. He smiles.
“What’s the matter, Antonie?”
“I’ll go mad with all the slow pace work. I want to canter!”
“Don’t worry, you’ll get your turn to canter and gallop to your heart’s content, I promise you. There is a very tough part coming that will challenge both you and your horse and then we are on the beachfront. As soon as we are there, we can go full out. I just foresee a problem because I’m riding an Arab. You’ll lose big time.”
“Forget it, chap. I’m riding a thoroughbred. I have speed.”
“Maybe, but Arabs have more endurance.”
“Okay. I’ll take that as a challenge. The loser must pay a round putt-putt and a monster double thick milkshake afterwards.”
Paul laughs heartily as they make their way up the steep sand dune before the open stretch of beachfront appears in front of them.
“It seems you want to be beaten twice on one day. That’s sounds like a winner. I hope you are ready to have dust in your eyes.”
With that Paul gets his horse in an immediate gallop from a walk with Antonie very short on his heels. The sound of their carefree laughter riding on the wind over the beach.
The Sacrifice Page 5