‘Her head was cold but her heart was warm’
“Tell her I love her so much” - These were the last words from Leo-Zani before she died
“She loved taking pictures. After every bath, she would take hundreds of pictures until she gets the right one.”
That is how Portia Slava described her sister Valentia Slava who was murdered last week.
Valentia who was known to her friends as Leo-Zani was not just a pretty face with a love for selfies but she loved school as well.
She loved school so much that she asked for her books so that she could catch up with schoolwork while on her death bed.
“I feel very sad because I have been robbed of my best daughter. She was doing very well at school and she wanted to be a doctor,” said Leo-Zani’s mother Poppy Slava.
The 16-year-old was doing her Grade 11 at Noordgesig Secondary School this year. Her dream of becoming a doctor was taken from her by two women who stabbed her four times during a street brawl last Saturday evening.
No words can do justice in describing the pain and grief that has engulfed her family.
Pictures of Leo-Zani’s body lying in a pool of blood on the pavement and the blood on the floor of the emergency ward at Helen Joseph Hospital are still vivid in her sister’s mind.
“I was with her when she was taken to hospital and I didn’t want to tell my mother because I didn’t want to scare her.
“It was at the hospital where it got too much for me. I couldn’t stand to see her in the state she was, so I decided to go wait outside,” said grief stricken Portia.
Doctors did their best to save Leo-Zani and on Sunday morning, after an emergency operation, she woke up.
“I found her sleeping and I woke her up. She was very happy to see me. She told me everything that had happened during the fight and how they stabbed her.
“How can they do this to my baby, I don’t think I can forgive people who do such,” said the mother trying to hold back tears.
Poppy is angry and in pain and she wants people responsible for her daughter’s death to face the music one way or the other.
All she can remember about her daughter’s last moments of life is that she was in unbearable pain.
“I touched her. Her head was cold,” said Poppy busting into tears before even finishing her sentence.
Portia remembers her last moments with her sister while her mother was being comforted.
“She said she was thirsty and asked for cold water. I wanted to help her drink but she said she was fine she could hold it with her own hands.
“I brought her chocolate cake because I knew she loved it. She asked me to scratch her back and I did it,” said Portia.
After scratching her back Leo-Zani gave her sister a message to pass to her niece.
She said: “Tell her I love her so much.”
The funeral will be held at the family home in Noordgesig at 8:00 this Saturday.
