Hello

From the start, I wanted this memoir to include both the recent research and a wide range of lived experiences. As I kept going, more voices came forward screaming to be asserted in the narrative. Hello is all the richer for it. For the most time authors function as storytellers blending facts with creativity, science with fiction, succeeding to tell stories that are page-turners, more importantly however, telling stories that are fundamentally human sometimes we fail spectacularly.
Well, it goes to show that we are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. I hope in this instance I have succeeded to tell theirs as well as I could.          Upon hearing the news of her siblings following media interviews I gave refuting the fake decuplets story peddled by Modiehi Sithole, Kgaugelo my eldest daughter was non-plussed, miffed in fact. I am unsure if she was too angry to hold face-to-face conversation with me her 'Timer' or grew tired of mindless, numbing township gossip (she lives in gated estate suburbs) ex-communicating her father was the safest route under the circumstances.
Wa phuma kimi that was that. Sigra, Kgaugelo's younger sister, on the other hand, summoned enough courage to ask if she has siblings I wish to tell her about following media interviews I did. For a minute I talked glibly about why I have not been forthcoming to her and her siblings while prudently withholding the fact that I had shopped around to several publishing houses for publishing rights all of whom eyed me with pity.
Siphumusa and his younger brother Saroyah held opinions of their own but chose to keep their thoughts inside their heads preferring instead to wait for me to broach the subject at our dinner table as is customary with big announcements. As far my elder sisters were concerned, they kept a close vigil keeping everything under the lid. Five years on, Sigra would sent me a text, 'I find myself praying for the triplets and am keeping my fingers crossed that I will be united with them soon.'By them [my children] not pressurising me to share information I didn't have facts about or concrete data concerning the whereabouts of their siblings, they individually and collectively gave me space for which I am grateful, to deal as best as I could with the shock of their disappearance and to process the grief and estrangement impact this had on me.
Since then, with the passage of time I had ample scope to reflect on the ordeal I was put through, the patience in the aftermath to handle the truth surfacing as it did. Now the emotion is less intense than at the beginning and am in a position to hand them the full story - gritty, ugly, gruesome and messy - for each to handle and interrogate for themselves. This memoir serves to open my heart's candour saturating its corners.  The story of Tova, Ariella and Meir is worth sharing with my children, it is worth sharing with the world.
To Tova, Ariela and Meir count it not a loss, fathers love is the greatest gift of all, it never disappoints. I celebrate you on this your fifth birthday. Grace, peace and God's protection continue to surround you.