Devastated family mourns nurse’s death from Covid-19
The family laid her to rest at the homestead last Sunday.
The Mtwalume family of Ntombizakithi Ngidi (49), the nurse who died of Covid-19 related illness in Cape Town earlier this month, says life will be much harder as she was the main breadwinner.
She had worked at Tygerberg Hospital in the Western Cape since December last year. Ms Ngidi died at Melomed Bellville Private Hospital.
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She was the second nurse from the hospital to die of Covid-19 related illness, after Capetonian Petronella Benjamin from Eerste River had died, one day before her retirement.
Back home in Mtwalume, Ntombi’s heart-broken brother, Siyabonga Ngidi, said life will ‘never be the same’. The family, from Nyangwini ward, is devastated by her death.
To make matters worse, she was the only one in the family with a monthly salary. “She had big plans to build our family a dignified home. At this point, I don’t know how we are going to survive. Even now it’s difficult to think about how we are going to move forward,” he said.
At this point the Western Cape is the province with the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in South Africa.
Mr Ngidi said he last spoke to his sister a week before her death. “She had phoned me and said she was not feeling well. At that time she was at her work place. The following week she went to the doctor and was admitted on Tuesday. She spent Tuesday and Wednesday at the hospital and died on the Thursday,” he explained.
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Mr Ngidi said she had been healthy when she left home for Cape Town. “Now that she is gone we are going to rely on my mother’s old age pension and social grants for the children.”
Ms Ngidi was described as a very kind person, someone who was always smiling. She is survived by her mother, her son and a grandson, as well nephews and nieces. The family laid her to rest at the homestead last Sunday.
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