Lolla's Story

Lolla was our nanny.

Her name was Zozo Flora Madikane. She joined our family when my sister, Kim, was born in 1999 and got the nickname Lolla because Kim couldn't pronounce any of her names. Lolla stayed with us until 2013. Both of our parents worked, so we spent our afternoons and school holidays with her, and she gave us the happiest childhood.

Lolla always made the best food - although sometimes she burned our chips on Fridays. She would get excited that we were coming home soon and started cooking our lunch really early, and sometimes it was so early that the food burned in the oven. 🥹 It was so sweet. She learned how to cook traditional German food from our grandmother and honestly, I think she was better at cooking German food than our German mother (sorry, Mama)!

Lolla taught Kim how to speak isiXhosa when she was really little, and she also tried her best to learn German from us. Our grandparents viewed her as part of the family, and she even named her son after our grandfather - Kurt.

Quite often we'd come home from school to little notes she'd written for us and left in our rooms. I still have them all; they're so special!

Lolla was diagnosed with HIV in 2010 and, after a few years of ups and downs with her health, she returned to the Eastern Cape at the end of 2013. Saying goodbye to her was one of the worst days of our lives, but luckily we were able to stay in contact and we had regular phone calls. I remember telling her I became Deputy Head Girl and she responded "I told you that you were going to become the President of South Africa one day". She was so proud.

In February 2014, I got a phone call that changed my life forever - Lolla's family phoned to tell us she had passed. This was a few days after my last phone call with her, during which she'd reiterated again and again how much she loved me, and I realised that she'd called me to say goodbye (without telling me it was actually goodbye).

Nothing could have prepared our family for that loss; losing Lolla broke our hearts.

It's been 12 years and I still think of her every day. I wish she could have been here to see who we've become. She is such a big part of who Kim and I are, and it feels unfair that she doesn't get to see where our lives are going and all we have managed to achieve because of her.

Kim and I have had many conversations about how best to honour Lolla, and, when I started working with these children, I realised that perhaps the best way to carry on Lolla's legacy would be to do for others what she did for us: be there with love, encouragement, and the support they need to shine. I realised that if I wanted to truly honour her legacy, it needed to be more than individual acts of kindness - it needed a home, a way to reach more children, and so this foundation was born.

Lolla used to sing about "walking in the light of God" while she was dancing around our house. We decided to name our foundation Lolla's Light in her honour, as we are walking in her light with the work we're doing here.