Cape Town - It was the day her life changed
forever; the moment her happy,
outgoing child nearly died and ended up in a wheelchair.
Every time Joy Merryweather-Smith, 62, recalls that fateful day,
September 9, 2006, she shivers and sobs
uncontrollably.
She was speaking outside the
Western Cape High Court where her son Andrew is fighting to get some semblance of justice for a brutal attack that left him paralysed. He is seeking R10 million in damages from one his attackers, Oliver Scholtz.
A brawl broke out between a group at the Caltex garage in Claremont, 13 years ago, ending with an altercation between Andrew and former Reddam House pupil Scholtz.
Andrew fell and hit his head against a parked car.
The high court initially ordered R10m in damages in June 2013 in favour of Andrew, which was later set aside by a full bench on December 14, 2015.
Sipping a cup of coffee, her hands quivering, Merryweather-Smith explained: “On that morning, I got a call from his brother Nicholas and we drove to the garage. Andrew was lying on the thing. I got so upset and the paramedics shouted he can’t deal with me if I want him to deal with my son.
“They put Andrew into the ambulance and they told me to get in but I was too scared to be in the ambulance. My husband Clive took me to the
hospital. Andrew was lying on a bed and I could see his body shutting down. I bashed the paramedic on his chest and told him he has got to deal with my son. I shouted never mind his legs he is going to crash.”
Joy Merryweather-Smith with her son Andrew Merryweather. Picture: Ian Landsberg/African News Agency (ANA)
Shortly before the interview, Merryweather-Smith listened to the testimony of a medical doctor in court 7 about the injuries her son sustained.
“It ripped my heart out when the doctor told the court that Andrew was instantly paralysed after the incident,” she said.
It has been an uphill battle for both Joy and Andrew. She had to care for him and he that had to come to terms with is his paralysis. Before the fight, Andrew loved hiking and the outdoors. His rehabilitation has been a slow and arduous journey.
She still believes that Andrew will walk one day.
“I read somewhere at the time that if you get to 10 years, then they will walk. When the 10-years came, I will just put to 20 years. So it will be seven years before Andrew will walk. I really always try to blot it out if I can.” The family also bought a specially designed suite in the UK that helps Andrew walk.
“But the difficulty is that he needs to pick up to help him getting into the suite and while helping his mother injured her hand and she no longer has the strength to lift him up.”
Merryweather-Smith said a major setback for her son was when his fiancé dropped him almost on the day in April 2015 that they had to get married. “The school broke up for the holidays, we were all going to meet for the finalisation of the wedding and when my phone rang. I’m usually not good at my phone and when I checked, there was a message from his fiancé saying I must check my email.
“I went upstairs to check my emails and read the mail of his fiancé saying that she was not going through with the marriage. Her father told her that she mustn’t marry half-a-man. He is not half-a-man, he does everything himself, so that was very devastating and hit us very hard,” the mother said.
@TheCapeArgus