No breaking the Heymans family

Love, hope and faith.

These three simple words are the platform upon which the Heymans family rebuilt itself, after a number of personal tragedies threatened to break them apart.

Talking to Lee and Frans, one might never know their heartbreak.

Yet this couple have bared all for an article in People magazine in mid-April, hoping to inspire others by revealing the death of their unborn daughter, and a collision which left Frans’s life hanging by a thread.

“We prayed to God it would inspire others.

“During the interview, I went through it all again and I’ve only had the courage two years later.” The haunting article explained in Lee’s words her pain – both physical and emotional – after Thay was stillborn after about 35 weeks of pregnancy, her initial disbelief and eventual slump into depression.

It took almost half a year for her to regain control.

Then the unthinkable – while driving his motorbike to work in Dundee, Frans was struck by a bread van and critically injured. “He suffered intensive injuries including five chest fractures, eight hip and pelvic fractures, a broken thumb and a punctured kidney. He also suffered a massive heart attack.”

After some intervention on Lee’s part, Frans received treatment in Pretoria. It seemed life would do its best to break Lee down again, her son Seth falling seriously ill, her mother contracting bronchitis and her sister-in-law’s kitchen erupting in flames. “Obviously Frans was unaware of everything going on, because I wasn’t going to stress him out even more by telling him.”

Praying for a miracle, a sentiment echoed in the Newcastle Advertiser for some time, Frans began the arduous road to recovery with his wife there every step of the way.

Although recovered, he has since had trouble with his memory, despite wearing a helmet at the time of the collision. Curiously, the tension between the couple after the death of Thay seemed to diminish in light of Frans’s recuperation, and their relationship began to mend itself. And in July 2014, the Heymans’ prayers came true.

“Our daughter was a literal prayer. Frans chose the name Ane, which means prayer. We went through hell and back, almost divorced but got stronger each day after rekindling our faith.”

Giving their thanks to God for the miracles of Frans’ recovery and Ane’s birth, Lee and Frans thanked mothers-in-law Thea and Lethisia, siblings Jean and Leoni, the Everson family, Nelda and Bennie Vorster, and all friends and family who prayed for them.

“We are proud to be back on our feet and to have been given this second chance.”