Unexpected joy found in search for lost mother

A cloudy family tree has a silver branch. A woman discovered she had a half-sister more than 40 years after the disappearance of her mother.

April 4, 2017

Elbi Dippenaar 2 minutes read

WHITE RIVER

Ms Ouma Julia Dhlodhlo went missing from Modimole in 1974. She left home to attend an event at a school and never returned. Julia was a single parent with four children. The youngest was only three months old. The children were raised by their grandparents in Modimolle.

Forty years later Ms Louzy Dhlodhlo, the youngest of Julia’s children, reported her mother missing at Modimolle Police Station. Lt Col Simon Mogale took charge of the investigation.

Louzy only had old photos and did not have her mother’s ID number. As she had very little personal information to provide, the investigation started at the Bela-Bela Methodist Church. The church at Bela-Bela had burned down some years ago and personal records kept of its members had been lost.

Mogale went on to try to track down any information about Julia at home affairs. He found her ID number, but the given name did not match.

Mogale contacted her husband. He sent a photograph of Julia and confirmed it was the same person. Julia had died on March 11, 2013, a year before the search began.

It was not in vain though, as Julia had another four children with her husband. Of them, two had died. Louzy and Mogale travelled to White River and Louzy met her half-sister for the first time on March 3. Photo: Supplied

Nozipho Mndwane is 35 years old and is currently visiting Louzy in Modimolle, with her children.

“I decided to surprise her and we are staying for a few weeks,” she told Lowvelder. “We have become inseparable, like twins. I tell her what Mom was like, every day,” she said.

“My mother was a quiet woman and always smiled. Whenever we asked her about her side of the family, she would just cry and change the subject.”

“Louzy was told that the elders were looking for our mom, but the they did not. Some told us that our mom had started to look for Louzy and our other siblings, but no one ever told us, or Louzy,” Nozipho explained.

Louzy recalled the pain and anger of growing up without a mother, but she is at peace with it now.

“No one knows what her life was like or what she had to go through, but now, we have family, we have love and support, and I am happy with the result,” she said.