User:Rudolfdh

It was a Wednesday.

I, Rudolf Cornelis de Haan, was born in Cape Town, South Africa on the 22nd of December 1971, around 04:30 AM - but I do not remember the details. Later I would learn that I was born the third child of four children my father Cornelis (Kees) de Haan had with my mother, Johanna Margaretha Elizabeth (Hanneke) de Haan - born Stadler.

Being gifted, I've enjoyed school tremendously and became deputy headboy in primary school; head boy in high school. During the same year that I've matriculated, my parents got divorced.

In 1990 I commenced my studes in Mechanical Engineering at the Johannesburg University (then the Rand Afrikaans University). My studies lacked focus and I never really excelled. During 1992, whilst busy with his third year of B.Eng. Mechanical - rather dramatically - things changed, drastically.

On the 10th of June 1992 - shortly after 20:00 (8:00 PM) - Rudolf de Haan, his father Kees and brother Luit (Simon Adriaan) were involved in a motor vehicle collision...

A few months later he would learn that, according to the eye-witness account, a young mother-of-two approached the intersection at high speed. The trafic lights had just turned red - indicating STOP! - for traffic coming from her direction. She did not stop.

The only passenger travelling with the young lady - the driver's sister, visiting from England - was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car. The impact fractured her pelvis.

The driver, however, would succumb to her injuries the following day.

Grief stricken her husband visited the hospital where I was, blamed my father for the accident and left for England with his sister-in-law and his children.

I would spend a total of 15 days in a coma.