murdered in cold blood. Despite making a heroic effort to save himself by driving for 20 minutes to the nearest hospital with font bullets in his body, he died a tragic death due to complications that arose from previous medical conditions. His son arrived at the hospital too late to be able to ever see him smile again. Victor would never be able to tell his father that he loved him again. Victor's message from this heart-breaking incident was that you should never take what you have for granted, because you never know when it might be taken away from you. Three months later, Victor was picked for the Transvaal side to play at Lords in England. However, the whole tour just didn't seem right for him without his father's enthusiastic support and encouragement from the sidelines. He did, however,share with us an amusing tale from his match at Lords, where he somehow managed to forget his box before appearing before 20 000 spectators to bat, and only realised his mistake whilst making his "final" equipment check as he approached the pitch. As he put it, it was "his pride,or his goolies." Through his previous acquaintance with the opposing side's wicket keeper,he managed to avertsome embarrassment by borrowing the keeper's box for three balls before his piece of kit was brought onto the field, but by this time,the crowd at Lords were thoroughly amused by his misfortune,and thus his pride and fame was very much short-lived. He also told us another entertaining snippet of a scene involving a 6'9" West Indian bowler from the opposition at a bat after the match. A woman apparently entered the bar and walked up to this bowler and asked him whether all of his body was in proportion,and he replied,"No ma'am,if it was,I'd be 9'6"." When Victor returned to South Aftica after a fairly successful tour,he was still trying to come to terms with his father's death. He was about to set off for a braai party with some friends, 1 dived in and as he left he decided to tty out a line that he'd just heard in a movie, and he said to his mother,"Tonight is a good night to die." How ironic that line tutned out to be. "Young boys always think that they're invincible, but they ate not. Seven months after my father's death, I did something I'd done hundreds of times before as a party trick, but this time, it changed my life. I dived into the pool at the party, but I had jumped too far and I broke my neck. It was as ifsomeone had just turned off a light. I could only move my eyes, nothing else. I could still hear my friends in the background, joking, oblivious to what had happened. I was taking in water,and I wasn't sure if I was going to make it." to the poolat the party, hutI had jumped toofarandI broke my neck. Victor interrupted this disconcerting story to make a point. He told the audience that everyone should have a goal for life, and that you must make each day in your life count. You must look at your life from a broader perspective, and live for quality, not quantity. "A girl on the side of the pool saw me and realized that something was very wrong and started screaming. My friends climbed into the pool and carried me out, but as it happened, they actually did even more harm to my neck, but I was totally responsible for what had happened,and have no one to blame but myself. In life, you make mistakes, but you must learn from them and take responsibility for your own 10 actions. The paramedics finally arrived, but half way to JHB General, Victor went into a coma. When he woke up,he saw a woman. He thought that he must be in heaven, but perhaps his initial thoughts were wrong,and maybe he was in hell? He had a myriad ofstrange apparatus attached to his body,from drips, to pipes going into his stomach and his bladder. A doctor walked into the room and told him that he was paralysed, and delivered a fairly grim description about
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