Day 3: Wednesday
“By some stroke of luck Cindy Mkhize arrived back from her trip abroad in time to spend this morning with us. Her story is an incredible one. She started the day by showing us her shared room at The Palms and surprised us by taking a bag of medals from the cupboard and spilling them over her bed. She later explained in her interview by the pool that she doesn’t really keep count but that she has exactly 70 medals. National records broken, Special Olympics last year – the list continues. But what makes Cindy’s achievements as a swimmer most inspiring is the story behind the story. In her room, after showing us all her medals and explaining how she loves playing the clarinet but doesn’t have one, she tells us about how her mother abandoned her as a child, leaving her in a plastic bag next to a bin. She speaks of how sad this makes her and how sometimes she wonders where her mother is and how she still worries about her mother.
With enormous grace she explains how her disability and her past motivated her to do her best and to become the best swimmer she can be. At the pool, after posing with her medals and swimming laps in the freezing water for the purposes of our filming, she explains how her dream is to coach kids and teach them how to swim so they can reap the benefits she has. She explains how much she loves to travel and all the opportunities the swimming has brought her. What moved us deeply was her story about she went to the pool with her friends from The Palms one day and someone said to her: ‘you look so normal – what are doing with them’ and she replied ‘I am one of them and I’m proud to be with them’. She also tells us how she wants one day to adopt a child to love it so much so that he/she will never feel alone. She finishes off by saying how much she would love to live independently – how this would mean everything to her. We then filmed her at the workshop with her best friend Ruby.
We can’t believe how much we saw and felt in three days. I can’t say enough how thankful we are for the experience and for the hospitality at PMB Mental Health Society.
Only the best,
Jo”
‘Our Story’, the video Jo was shooting for will be premiered at Climb Any Mountain’s TLC Gala Dinner and Auction on 25 October 2013. For tickets to this event, visit http://galadinner.climbanymountain.org/tickets/.
