Cape Town - Michelle Ohlsson, the mother of Matthew Ohlsson who went missing 24 years ago at the age of 9, has for the first time intimately shared the family’s pain, suffering and courage in a book, The Matthew Ohlsson Story, Without A Trace.
The book is co-written by her daughter, Melanie, her husband, Michael, and sons Justin and Jason.
It has been a two-year journey for Michelle and her family who, for the first time in over two decades, could put pen to paper about how the disappearance affected their family.
For Michelle, it is a story of courage, hope and strength, revisiting her childhood, the battles of being a young bride to finding herself in an organisation used to find missing children on the Cape Flats.
It is the untold story, said Michelle, which they as family could never speak about publicly.
The family told Weekend Argus the book was healing and hoped their stories could help others and empower them.
“It is the untold, it is things that the family went through and wasn’t able to speak about and we put it pen to paper and it is a must-read,” said Michelle.
“I read the Bible verse from Habakkuk daily, where God said you have to write it down to get answers.
“It has been 24 years and I never got high, I never drank or ended up in a mental institution or attempted to commit suicide.
“I took my strength with my faith, my gospel music, the word of God. When the doors closed, I knew God would open others.
“I always tell my children, the world doesn’t owe you anything, it’s about fighting and that is what the book is about.”
Having not completed her schooling, Michelle for the first time wrote about her feelings and experiences as a teenage girl to motherhood.
The chapters shared with her daughter gave her deep insight into what her children had endured.
“I never dreamed I would write a book, I never had an education,” she added. “Despite that, I saw that my three children completed their matric and today they are wise adults.
“My daughter, Melanie co-wrote the book with me. We put our lives into the book.
“When I read what Melanie had written, I gained insight as a mother that I did not know at the time, she had protected me.”
Melanie, who is now also a mother, said for the first time she had shared her feelings as the sister of Matthew.
She hopes her story will encourage other siblings who have a missing brother or sister.
“It was hard at first to write, after I finished writing it. I finally felt free,” she said. “I hope that my story will help to motivate others who also have a missing person in their family.
“We are siblings, but we also felt the loss. I am proud of my mother, that she took this step.”
Tshienda said the book was to inspire and change people’s lives because Michelle and her family had set themselves free by telling their truth.
“I do not just want it to sell, I want it to transform people’s lives,” she said. “Michelle has copyright over the book, it is self-published.
“I always say, I do not see myself as a publisher but to partner with you to turn your book into a manuscript.
“This is a Cape Flats story, she wrote it from the heart, she didn’t complete her schooling but this book is there to encourage other women that you do not need a qualification to tell your story.”
She said the launch would be held in August during Women’s Month and also due to current lockdown restrictions, the book can be ordered online via Amazon.
In April this year, Weekend Argus spoke to a child witness, who is now 33 and gave police a statement about how she had seen Matthew through the window of a neighbour who lived inside a separate entrance in Rocklands.
She told the newspaper of how she had finally realised decades later that the boy she had seen when she was just 10 was Matthew and contacted Michelle.
She gave a statement to police nearly two years ago claiming that the boy had been crying at the window of the home of a man who used to sell magazines and books.
The book is self-published with the partnership of Haroldene Tshienda. It was released this week by Tshienda Publications and is available on Amazon.([email protected])
Weekend Argus