IT’S the long, dark nights she dreads the most. Sometimes she wakes in the pitch black and in the few seconds before harsh reality comes flooding back, she believes her baby boy is lying beside her, safe and warm under the covers.
But Ryan, her beautiful nine-month-old son, is gone forever. Her older son, Ruan (4), is dead too and she’ll never again hear his laughter or see him running full tilt through the house.
The rooms are silent, the boys’ toys packed away – a constant reminder of her aching loss.
Nikita Venter (26) sits on a couch in her parents’ home in Brakpan, Gauteng,
