“I’m sure that you’re up there amongst those stars, Mama,” Then he smiled and sighed happily, “Ehh, Ehh, Life is going to be absolutely wonderful after all, isn’t it, Mama…” This story tells of a boy named Thabo, and later, a young man, who goes through many painful trials and tribulations in his boyhood but who also experiences the love of his father and, ultimately into his young adulthood, the love of his wife. After losing his much loved mother to a long, agonising illness, he is faced with the constant demands to “Yiza, Thabo!” (‘Come here, Thabo!’) by his stepmother and his teacher both of which precipitate a surprisingly resentful reaction to what he feels is his mother’s ‘desertion’ of him. Unusual as feelings of resentment and anger are in the grieving process, the story makes them believable in terms of Thabo’s specific experiences.
