Glenn and Kyleigh Rousseau, Fish Hoek
This letter is directed to everyone who responded so warm-heartedly to Yolande du Preez’s wonderful article (“Help Glenn walk again,” Echo November 23).
On behalf of Glenn and myself, I want to express our profound gratitude for the amazing impact you have had on our lives. Glenn and I are overwhelmed by the fact that so many people who are complete strangers to us have so kindly and generously come together and helped us in ways that have completely changed our circumstances, as well as our hearts.
We will be forever grateful that we have experienced such exquisite care from a community of people who we can never repay.
I wish I could thank you all by name, but, sadly, I’m on first-name terms with only a few of you. So please forgive me for thanking the following people by name.
Thank you, Chris Botha for having the heart to stop and find out why I was begging at a traffic light. Thank you too for the financial help, food, clothing, medical supplies, and especially for starting the BackaBuddy campaign.
Thank you, Yolande du Preez from the Echo, for the beautiful way in which you wrote our story (twice now).
Thank you so much, Louis Naudé, for your very generous monthly donation, and a huge thank you to the beautiful Fiona, previously from Fish Hoek and now living in Oudtshoorn, for the delicious home-cooked meals she's having delivered to us a few times a week, including a roast on Sundays. Thank you, too, for the luxurious supermarket delivery.
I can’t wait to meet you in person next month and to try and express the difference you have made to our lives.
Thank you, Ang, from My Father’s House, for the delivery of cooked vegetables every day. As we’d lived on toast for so many months, this really is immense.
Thank you, Sharon Cussons, for the lovely friendly chats, and for coordinating donors to our cause, and for delivering their gifts to us. I don’t know who they are, but a heartfelt thank you to you all.
Thank you, Carin, for the extremely generous grocery delivery and thank you to my neighbour, James, and his partner, Christine, for your generous financial blessing.
Thank you to Cyril, from Cyril’s Collectibles and Furniture, for your ongoing kindness and help ever since Glenn and I arrived in FIsh Hoek.
A special thanks to the old ladies from Anchusa Court, in Meadowridge, for your donation and groceries. I appreciate you so much.
Thank you, Carole, for placing our story on the Facebook group you run, and for the donations that came to us from that community through you. Thank you all.
Thank you, Lisa Berg, for taking the time and trouble to organise a physiotherapist for Glenn, and a huge thank you to Bianca, visiting from the States, for offering her services.
So many special, selfless people around.
Thank you, Barbara Bester, for the bedding, pots, and luxury food you brought to us, and a huge thank you to the lovely and truly joyful giver Sharon, of Presenters Pantry, who gave us so very many groceries.
Thank you, Lara Gordon, for inviting me out to lunch and for putting our story out on your Facebook group. It was lovely to meet you.
Thank you, Janice Botha, for alerting us to the R350 monthly South African Social Security Agency grant Glenn is eligible for, and an enormous thank you to all the motorists who brought us cash to the traffic lights, and thank you too for the smiles and encouragement.
Standing at the traffic light changed overnight from being a bleak and depressing place to being a friendly, joyful time as a result.
A special mention of the senior citizen who brought me apples and cash and prayed for me on the middle island. Also to the guy on the scooter who brought a bottle of kimchi and cash for Glenn.
A very big thank you to David and Marie who blessed us abundantly throughout my many months at the lights, long before Yolande’s last article about Glenn appeared in the Echo.
Thank you to the lady who saw me buying a duvet cover in St Luke’s Hospice shop on Saturday and so sweetly insisted on paying for it without even knowing the price.
Thank you, too, Susan, who works at the shop, for twice gifting me with much needed money after seeing me at the traffic light.
Last, but by no means least, a special thank you to Anthony for the encouragement and help during a difficult time, even insofar as buying me a bathroom light bulb when I spent my bulb money on a sock monkey and still had a dark bathroom three weeks later.
As for everyone who has donated to the BackaBuddy campaign, which raised R73 271, Glenn and I have no words to adequately express our gratitude. We truly feel like the most blessed people on the planet because of all of you. Our tears of gratitude don't cease to flow.
But please don’t stop praying for our big, big dream: A way to open up for us to afford the operations that would make Glenn walk again.