Hillcrest friends slowly rise from the ashes
The two friends lost all of their possessions when the storage units they leased were set alight during the recent unrest. They have since launched t-shirts to help raise money to recover from the incident.
TWO Upper Highway moms, Kerry Katz and Mariska Coutts are just two of the many residents who were hard hit by the looting and unrest that shook the country. They have shed many tears for the pieces of their lives they lost in a fire that tore through their storage units.
Finding solace and strength in their shared pain, they have chosen to rise again, like a phoenix from the ashes.
“It is knowing that I have, once before, been able to build myself and my family back up from scratch. This is what has kept me going. If I could do it once, I can do it again,” said Katz, a determined mother of two.
Fourteen years ago, Katz and her husband, Jonathan, purchased and moved into a home in Montclair. The property was gutted by squatters and, despite the less than hospitable conditions, they made it a home and slowly upgraded and revamped the derelict building.
Four weeks after the ‘for sale’ sign was placed on the verge, a massive storm swept through Durban. “The storm did R695 000 damage to a R1 million home. The roof had blown off the garage, water had rushed through the home, there were cracks running through all of the walls and every tree had fallen down onto the boundary wall. We lived in the destruction for two years. We had to start from scratch. Our appliances, even our washing, wasn’t spared,” she said.
While she looks for the positive, Katz admitted that none of it has been easy. “It is a possible way forward,” she said.
Moving to Hillcrest from their rented Waterfall home, the family took only their necessities and placed the rest in storage, filling up two storage units. Their goods were only in storage for a few days before they were torched during the recent looting and unrest that tore through KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
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“Our family photographs to furniture that has been in our family for four generations. It’s the things I can’t replace. I’m not hugely sentimental, but I kept the first pair of shoes I bought for each of my kids and I wanted to keep those,” she said.
Hope on the horizon
Coutts and Katz recently rekindled their friendship when they launched a fund-raiser for a friend in need.
“When I reconnected with her during the fundraiser, I realised we are the exact same person. When this all happened, her unit was her business and she lost all of that. There are two of us to get through this together and I set up a back-a-buddy for her to try and help her recover,” said Katz.
“We both have a sense of humour, we have both had a hard time and we don’t have a choice but to get through what life chucks at us. I said to her ‘do you know how many time we have said ‘ja…nee…v*k, ne’?’,” she said. “In a very South African way, it sums up our disillusionment and our ability to relate to each other through our loss.”
After a quick voice note to her friend, the decision was made to print the line onto a t-shirt and it would form part of their uniform to soldier on. The shirts inspired the idea of a photo shoot at their storage units, meant to be a moment just for the two of them to make light of a bad situation.
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“We imagined silliness and laughter and knew it would be therapeutic. We needed this. She contacted the owner of Wet Rock, an indoor waterpark that was gutted by fire.
The duo were photographed by the talented Penny Katz, who was in disbelief at the destruction caused to the building.
“We wanted to keep it real and raw. We took turns to cry, laughed and, despite the sadness, had fun. There was silliness and laughter amid the trauma. We bonded. We felt a powerful unity in this project. The light at the end of the tunnel may be dim, but it’s there. We are exhausted, but we have hope. We are brave, we are strong and we are courageous. But if Cyril would just give us our wine back,” said Katz.
To make a donation to help Coutts recover her business, visit www.backabuddy.co.za/mariska-coutts. To purchase a T-shirt or a mug, email kerryleighkatz@gmail.com.
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