Stella Swanepoel Decade of Diaries

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To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk disappointment. But risksmust be taken because the greatest risk in life is to risk nothing. Th e person who risksnothing does nothing, has nothing, and is nothing. Th ey cannot learn, feel, change, grow,love, or live. She held a marriage certifi cated in one hand dated October 20, 2001, and seven monthslater, a death certifi cate in the other hand dated June 5, 2002. In April 2005 four children lay in their sealed coffi ns, each with a photo of themselves placedfi rmly between the garlands of fl owers. Th ey were too young to have died. In the same year, she was told that if she did not have brain surgery, she probably only hadthree years to live. She chose not to sign the consent to procedure paperwork. In 2007, Ian, the love of her life left the room, never to be seen or heard from again. In 2008, her two daughters left the United Kingdom and moved to Australia. She was alone. What happened in the next four years? What could possibly have happened on the day shewas given her permanent residency to move to Australia?In 2012, a decade of diaries remained locked away in her bedroom draw. Would she tell all?Th is is not a book intended to make you cry. Its a true story of what happened in her fi rstfi ve years of being a widow and how she lived through it all. How she moved on, where sheis today, and what lies ahead after ten years had passed.